REDUCING JUNCTION EPITOPE PRESENTATION FOR NEOANTIGENS

SEQUENCE LISTING

The instant application contains a Sequence Listing which has been submitted electronically in ASCII format and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Said ASCII copy, created on Nov. 30, 2018, is named GSO-013WOUS_CRF_sequencelisting.txt and is 34,379 bytes in size.

BACKGROUND

Therapeutic vaccines based on tumor-specific neoantigens hold great promise as a next-generation of personalized cancer immunotherapy.^1-3Cancers with a high mutational burden, such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and melanoma, are particularly attractive targets of such therapy given the relatively greater likelihood of neoantigen generation.^4,5Early evidence shows that neoantigen-based vaccination can elicit T-cell responses' and that neoantigen targeted cell-therapy can cause tumor regression under certain circumstances in selected patients.⁷Both MHC class I and MHC class II have an impact on T-cell responses^70-71.

One question for neoantigen vaccine design is which of the many coding mutations present in subject tumors can generate the “best” therapeutic neoantigens, e.g., antigens that can elicit anti-tumor immunity and cause tumor regression.

Initial methods have been proposed incorporating mutation-based analysis using next-generation sequencing, RNA gene expression, and prediction of MHC binding affinity of candidate neoantigen peptides⁸. However, these proposed methods can fail to model the entirety of the epitope generation process, which contains many steps (e.g., TAP transport, proteasomal cleavage, MHC binding, transport of the peptide-MHC complex to the cell surface, and/or TCR recognition for MHC-I; endocytosis or autophagy, cleavage via extracellular or lysosomal proteases (e.g., cathepsins), competition with the CLIP peptide for HLA-DM-catalyzed HLA binding, transport of the peptide-MHC complex to the cell surface and/or TCR recognition for MHC-II) in addition to gene expression and MHC binding⁹. Consequently, existing methods are likely to suffer from reduced low positive predictive value (PPV). (FIG. 1A)

Indeed, analyses of peptides presented by tumor cells performed by multiple groups have shown that <5% of peptides that are predicted to be presented using gene expression and MHC binding affinity can be found on the tumor surface MHC^10,11(FIG. 1B). This low correlation between binding prediction and MHC presentation was further reinforced by recent observations of the lack of predictive accuracy improvement of binding-restricted neoantigens for checkpoint inhibitor response over the number of mutations alone.¹²

This low positive predictive value (PPV) of existing methods for predicting presentation presents a problem for neoantigen-based vaccine design. If vaccines are designed using predictions with a low PPV, most patients are unlikely to receive a therapeutic neoantigen and fewer still are likely to receive more than one (even assuming all presented peptides are immunogenic). Thus, neoantigen vaccination with current methods is unlikely to succeed in a substantial number of subjects having tumors. (FIG. 1C)

Additionally, previous approaches generated candidate neoantigens using only cis-acting mutations, and largely neglected to consider additional sources of neo-ORFs, including mutations in splicing factors, which occur in multiple tumor types and lead to aberrant splicing of many genes¹³, and mutations that create or remove protease cleavage sites.

Standard approaches to tumor genome and transcriptome analysis can miss somatic mutations that give rise to candidate neoantigens due to suboptimal conditions in library construction, exome and transcriptome capture, sequencing, or data analysis. Likewise, standard tumor analysis approaches can inadvertently promote sequence artifacts or germline polymorphisms as neoantigens, leading to inefficient use of vaccine capacity or auto-immunity risk, respectively.

Neoantigen vaccines are also typically designed as a vaccine cassette, in which a series of therapeutic epitopes are concatenated one after another. The vaccine cassette sequence may or may not include linker sequences in between adjacent pairs of therapeutic epitopes. A cassette sequence can give rise to junction epitopes that are novel but irrelevant epitope sequences that span the junction between a pair of therapeutic epitopes. Junction epitopes have the potential to presented by HLA class I or class II alleles of a patient, and stimulate a CD8 or CD4 T-cell response, respectively. Such reactions are often times undesirable because T-cells reactive to the junction epitopes have no therapeutic benefit, and may diminish the immune response to the selected therapeutic epitopes in the cassette by antigenic competition.

SUMMARY

Disclosed herein is an optimized approach for identifying and selecting neoantigens for personalized cancer vaccines. First, optimized tumor exome and transcriptome analysis approaches for neoantigen candidate identification using next-generation sequencing (NGS) are addressed. These methods build on standard approaches for NGS tumor analysis to ensure that the highest sensitivity and specificity neoantigen candidates are advanced, across all classes of genomic alteration. Second, novel approaches for high-PPV neoantigen selection are presented to overcome the specificity problem and ensure that neoantigens advanced for vaccine inclusion are more likely to elicit anti-tumor immunity. These approaches include, depending on the embodiment, trained statistic regression or nonlinear deep learning models that jointly model peptide-allele mappings as well as the per-allele motifs for peptide of multiple lengths, sharing statistical strength across peptides of different lengths. The nonlinear deep learning models particularly can be designed and trained to treat different MHC alleles in the same cell as independent, thereby addressing problems with linear models that would have them interfere with each other. Finally, additional considerations for personalized vaccine design and manufacturing based on neoantigens are addressed.

Given a set of therapeutic epitopes, a cassette sequence is designed to reduce the likelihood that junction epitopes are presented in the patient. The cassette sequence is designed by taking into account presentation of junction epitopes that span the junction between a pair of therapeutic epitopes in the cassette. In one embodiment, the cassette sequence is designed based on a set of distance metrics each associated with a junction of the cassette. The distance metric may specify a likelihood that one or more of the junction epitopes spanning between a pair of adjacent epitopes will be presented. In one embodiment, one or more candidate cassette sequences are generated by randomly permutating the order in which the set of therapeutic epitopes are concatenated, and the a cassette sequence having a presentation score (e.g., a sum of the distance metrics) below a predetermined threshold is selected. In another embodiment, the therapeutic epitopes are modeled as nodes, and the distance metric for an adjacent pair of epitopes represents the distance between the corresponding nodes. A cassette sequence that results in a total distance to “visit” each therapeutic epitope exactly once below a predetermined threshold is selected.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, and accompanying drawings, where:

Figure (FIG.) 1A shows current clinical approaches to neoantigen identification.

FIG. 1B shows that <5% of predicted bound peptides are presented on tumor cells.

FIG. 1C shows the impact of the neoantigen prediction specificity problem.

FIG. 1D shows that binding prediction is not sufficient for neoantigen identification.

FIG. 1E shows probability of MHC-I presentation as a function of peptide length.

FIG. 1F shows an example peptide spectrum generated from Promega's dynamic range standard. FIG. 1F discloses SEQ ID NO: 1.

FIG. 1G shows how the addition of features increases the model positive predictive value.

FIG. 2A is an overview of an environment for identifying likelihoods of peptide presentation in patients, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 2B and 2C illustrate a method of obtaining presentation information, in accordance with an embodiment (SEQ ID NOS 72 and 3-8, respectively, in order of appearance).

FIG. 3 is a high-level block diagram illustrating the computer logic components of the presentation identification system, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example set of training data, according to one embodiment (SEQ ID NOS 10-13, 15, 73-74, and 74, respectively, in order of columns).

FIG. 5 illustrates an example network model in association with an MHC allele.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example network model NNH(⋅) shared by MHC alleles, according to one embodiment. FIG. 6B illustrates an example network model NN_H(⋅) shared by MHC alleles, according to another embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for a peptide in association with an MHC allele using an example network model.

FIG. 8 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for a peptide in association with a MHC allele using example network models.

FIG. 9 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for a peptide in association with MHC alleles using example network models.

FIG. 10 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for a peptide in association with MHC alleles using example network models.

FIG. 11 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for a peptide in association with MHC alleles using example network models.

FIG. 12 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for a peptide in association with MHC alleles using example network models.

FIG. 13 illustrates determining distance metrics for two example cassette sequences (SEQ ID NOS 75-76, respectively, in order of appearance).

FIG. 14 illustrates an example computer for implementing the entities shown in FIGS. 1 and 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
I. Definitions

In general, terms used in the claims and the specification are intended to be construed as having the plain meaning understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art. Certain terms are defined below to provide additional clarity. In case of conflict between the plain meaning and the provided definitions, the provided definitions are to be used.

As used herein the term “antigen” is a substance that induces an immune response.

As used herein the term “neoantigen” is an antigen that has at least one alteration that makes it distinct from the corresponding wild-type, parental antigen, e.g., via mutation in a tumor cell or post-translational modification specific to a tumor cell. A neoantigen can include a polypeptide sequence or a nucleotide sequence. A mutation can include a frameshift or nonframeshift indel, missense or nonsense substitution, splice site alteration, genomic rearrangement or gene fusion, or any genomic or expression alteration giving rise to a neoORF. A mutations can also include a splice variant. Post-translational modifications specific to a tumor cell can include aberrant phosphorylation. Post-translational modifications specific to a tumor cell can also include a proteasome-generated spliced antigen. See Liepe et al., A large fraction of HLA class I ligands are proteasome-generated spliced peptides; Science. 2016 Oct. 21; 354(6310):354-358.

As used herein the term “tumor neoantigen” is a neoantigen present in a subject's tumor cell or tissue but not in the subject's corresponding normal cell or tissue.

As used herein the term “neoantigen-based vaccine” is a vaccine construct based on one or more neoantigens, e.g., a plurality of neoantigens.

As used herein the term “candidate neoantigen” is a mutation or other aberration giving rise to a new sequence that may represent a neoantigen.

As used herein the term “coding region” is the portion(s) of a gene that encode protein.

As used herein the term “coding mutation” is a mutation occurring in a coding region.

As used herein the term “ORF” means open reading frame.

As used herein the term “NEO-ORF” is a tumor-specific ORF arising from a mutation or other aberration such as splicing.

As used herein the term “missense mutation” is a mutation causing a substitution from one amino acid to another.

As used herein the term “nonsense mutation” is a mutation causing a substitution from an amino acid to a stop codon.

As used herein the term “frameshift mutation” is a mutation causing a change in the frame of the protein.

As used herein the term “indel” is an insertion or deletion of one or more nucleic acids.

As used herein, the term percent “identity,” in the context of two or more nucleic acid or polypeptide sequences, refer to two or more sequences or subsequences that have a specified percentage of nucleotides or amino acid residues that are the same, when compared and aligned for maximum correspondence, as measured using one of the sequence comparison algorithms described below (e.g., BLASTP and BLASTN or other algorithms available to persons of skill) or by visual inspection. Depending on the application, the percent “identity” can exist over a region of the sequence being compared, e.g., over a functional domain, or, alternatively, exist over the full length of the two sequences to be compared.

For sequence comparison, typically one sequence acts as a reference sequence to which test sequences are compared. When using a sequence comparison algorithm, test and reference sequences are input into a computer, subsequence coordinates are designated, if necessary, and sequence algorithm program parameters are designated. The sequence comparison algorithm then calculates the percent sequence identity for the test sequence(s) relative to the reference sequence, based on the designated program parameters. Alternatively, sequence similarity or dissimilarity can be established by the combined presence or absence of particular nucleotides, or, for translated sequences, amino acids at selected sequence positions (e.g., sequence motifs).

Optimal alignment of sequences for comparison can be conducted, e.g., by the local homology algorithm of Smith & Waterman, Adv. Appl. Math. 2:482 (1981), by the homology alignment algorithm of Needleman & Wunsch, J. Mol. Biol. 48:443 (1970), by the search for similarity method of Pearson & Lipman, Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 85:2444 (1988), by computerized implementations of these algorithms (GAP, BESTFIT, FASTA, and TFASTA in the Wisconsin Genetics Software Package, Genetics Computer Group, 575 Science Dr., Madison, Wis.), or by visual inspection (see generally Ausubel et al., infra).

One example of an algorithm that is suitable for determining percent sequence identity and sequence similarity is the BLAST algorithm, which is described in Altschul et al., J. Mol. Biol. 215:403-410 (1990). Software for performing BLAST analyses is publicly available through the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

As used herein the term “non-stop or read-through” is a mutation causing the removal of the natural stop codon.

As used herein the term “epitope” is the specific portion of an antigen typically bound by an antibody or T cell receptor.

As used herein the term “immunogenic” is the ability to elicit an immune response, e.g., via T cells, B cells, or both.

As used herein the term “HLA binding affinity” “MHC binding affinity” means affinity of binding between a specific antigen and a specific MHC allele.

As used herein the term “bait” is a nucleic acid probe used to enrich a specific sequence of DNA or RNA from a sample.

As used herein the term “variant” is a difference between a subject's nucleic acids and the reference human genome used as a control.

As used herein the term “variant call” is an algorithmic determination of the presence of a variant, typically from sequencing.

As used herein the term “polymorphism” is a germline variant, i.e., a variant found in all DNA-bearing cells of an individual.

As used herein the term “somatic variant” is a variant arising in non-germline cells of an individual.

As used herein the term “allele” is a version of a gene or a version of a genetic sequence or a version of a protein.

As used herein the term “HLA type” is the complement of HLA gene alleles.

As used herein the term “nonsense-mediated decay” or “NMD” is a degradation of an mRNA by a cell due to a premature stop codon.

As used herein the term “truncal mutation” is a mutation originating early in the development of a tumor and present in a substantial portion of the tumor's cells.

As used herein the term “subclonal mutation” is a mutation originating later in the development of a tumor and present in only a subset of the tumor's cells.

As used herein the term “exome” is a subset of the genome that codes for proteins. An exome can be the collective exons of a genome.

As used herein the term “logistic regression” is a regression model for binary data from statistics where the logit of the probability that the dependent variable is equal to one is modeled as a linear function of the dependent variables.

As used herein the term “neural network” is a machine learning model for classification or regression consisting of multiple layers of linear transformations followed by element-wise nonlinearities typically trained via stochastic gradient descent and back-propagation.

As used herein the term “proteome” is the set of all proteins expressed and/or translated by a cell, group of cells, or individual.

As used herein the term “peptidome” is the set of all peptides presented by MHC-I or MHC-II on the cell surface. The peptidome may refer to a property of a cell or a collection of cells (e.g., the tumor peptidome, meaning the union of the peptidomes of all cells that comprise the tumor).

As used herein the term “ELISPOT” means Enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay—which is a common method for monitoring immune responses in humans and animals.

As used herein the term “dextramers” is a dextran-based peptide-MHC multimers used for antigen-specific T-cell staining in flow cytometry.

As used herein the term “tolerance or immune tolerance” is a state of immune non-responsiveness to one or more antigens, e.g. self-antigens.

As used herein the term “central tolerance” is a tolerance affected in the thymus, either by deleting self-reactive T-cell clones or by promoting self-reactive T-cell clones to differentiate into immunosuppressive regulatory T-cells (Tregs).

As used herein the term “peripheral tolerance” is a tolerance affected in the periphery by downregulating or energizing self-reactive T-cells that survive central tolerance or promoting these T cells to differentiate into Tregs.

The term “sample” can include a single cell or multiple cells or fragments of cells or an aliquot of body fluid, taken from a subject, by means including venipuncture, excretion, ejaculation, massage, biopsy, needle aspirate, lavage sample, scraping, surgical incision, or intervention or other means known in the art.

The term “subject” encompasses a cell, tissue, or organism, human or non-human, whether in vivo, ex vivo, or in vitro, male or female. The term subject is inclusive of mammals including humans.

The term “mammal” encompasses both humans and non-humans and includes but is not limited to humans, non-human primates, canines, felines, murines, bovines, equines, and porcines.

The term “clinical factor” refers to a measure of a condition of a subject, e.g., disease activity or severity. “Clinical factor” encompasses all markers of a subject's health status, including non-sample markers, and/or other characteristics of a subject, such as, without limitation, age and gender. A clinical factor can be a score, a value, or a set of values that can be obtained from evaluation of a sample (or population of samples) from a subject or a subject under a determined condition. A clinical factor can also be predicted by markers and/or other parameters such as gene expression surrogates. Clinical factors can include tumor type, tumor sub-type, and smoking history.

Abbreviations: MHC: major histocompatibility complex; HLA: human leukocyte antigen, or the human MHC gene locus; NGS: next-generation sequencing; PPV: positive predictive value; TSNA: tumor-specific neoantigen; FFPE: formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded; NMD: nonsense-mediated decay; NSCLC: non-small-cell lung cancer; DC: dendritic cell.

It should be noted that, as used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

Any terms not directly defined herein shall be understood to have the meanings commonly associated with them as understood within the art of the invention. Certain terms are discussed herein to provide additional guidance to the practitioner in describing the compositions, devices, methods and the like of aspects of the invention, and how to make or use them. It will be appreciated that the same thing may be said in more than one way. Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein. No significance is to be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein. Some synonyms or substitutable methods, materials and the like are provided. Recital of one or a few synonyms or equivalents does not exclude use of other synonyms or equivalents, unless it is explicitly stated. Use of examples, including examples of terms, is for illustrative purposes only and does not limit the scope and meaning of the aspects of the invention herein.

All references, issued patents and patent applications cited within the body of the specification are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety, for all purposes.

II. Methods of Reducing Junction Epitope Presentation

Disclosed herein are methods for identifying a cassette sequence for a neoantigen vaccine. As an example, one such method may comprise the steps of obtaining, for a patient, at least one of exome, transcriptome, or whole genome tumor nucleotide sequencing data from the tumor cells and normal cells of the subject, wherein the nucleotide sequencing data is used to obtain data representing peptide sequences of each of a set of neoantigens identified by comparing the nucleotide sequencing data from the tumor cells and the nucleotide sequencing data from the normal cells, wherein the peptide sequence of each neoantigen comprises at least one alteration that makes it distinct from a corresponding wild-type, parental peptide sequence identified from the normal cells of the subject and includes information regarding a plurality of amino acids that make up the peptide sequence and a set of positions of the amino acids in the peptide sequence; inputting the peptide sequences of the neoantigens, using a computer processor, into a machine-learned presentation model to generate a set of numerical presentation likelihoods for the set of neoantigens, each presentation likelihood in the set representing the likelihood that a corresponding neoantigen is presented by one or more MHC alleles on the surface of the tumor cells of the subject. The machine-learned presentation model comprises a plurality of parameters identified at least based on a training data set. The training data set comprises for each sample in a set of samples, a label obtained by mass spectrometry measuring presence of peptides bound to at least one MHC allele in a set of MHC alleles identified as present in the sample; for each of the samples, training peptide sequences including information regarding a plurality of amino acids that make up the training peptide sequences and a set of positions of the amino acids in the training peptide sequences; and a function representing a relation between the peptide sequences of the neoantigens received as input and the presentation likelihoods generated as output. The method may further comprise the steps of identifying, for the subject, a treatment subset of neoantigens from the set of neoantigens, the treatment subset of neoantigens corresponding to a predetermined number of neoantigens having presentation likelihoods above a predetermined threshold; and identifying, for the subject, the cassette sequence comprising a sequence of concatenated therapeutic epitopes that each include the peptide sequence of a corresponding neoantigen in the treatment subset of neoantigens, wherein the cassette sequence is identified based on presentation of one or more junction epitopes that span corresponding junctions between one or more adjacent pairs of therapeutic epitopes.

The presentation of the one or more junction epitopes may be determined based on binding affinity predictions between the one or more junction epitopes and the one or more MHC alleles of the subject.

The presentation of the one or more junction epitopes may be determined based on binding stability predictions of the one or more junction epitopes.

The one or more junction epitopes may include a junction epitope overlapping with a sequence of a first therapeutic epitope and a sequence of a second therapeutic epitope concatenated after the first therapeutic epitope.

A linker sequence may be placed between a first therapeutic epitope and a second therapeutic epitope concatenated after the first therapeutic epitope, and the one or more junction epitopes include a junction epitope overlapping with the linker sequence.

Identifying the cassette sequence may further comprise the steps of determining, for each ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes, a set of junction epitopes that span the junction between the ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes; and determining, for each ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes, a distance metric indicating presentation of the set of junction epitopes for the ordered pair on the one or more MHC alleles of the subject.

Identifying the cassette sequence may further comprise the steps of generating a set of candidate cassette sequences corresponding to different sequences of the therapeutic epitopes; for each candidate cassette sequence, determining a presentation score for the candidate cassette sequence based on the distance metrics for each ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes in the candidate cassette sequence; and selecting a candidate cassette sequence associated with a presentation score below a predetermined threshold as the cassette sequence for the neoantigen vaccine.

The set of candidate cassette sequences may be randomly generated.

Identifying the cassette sequence may further comprise the steps of solving for values of x_kmin the following optimization problem:

$\min_{x} \sum_{k = 1}^{v + 1} \sum_{k \neq m, m = 1}^{v + 1} P_{k m} \cdot x_{k m}$

$\sum_{k = 1}^{v + 1} x_{k m} = 1, m = 1, 2, \dots, v + 1$

$\sum_{m = 1}^{v + 1} x_{k m} = 1, k = 1, 2, \dots, v + 1$

$x_{k k} = 0, k = 1, 2, \dots, v + 1$

$out (S) \geq 1, S \subset E, 2 \leq ❘ S ❘ \leq ❘ V ❘ / 2$

wherein v corresponds to the predetermined number of neoantigens, k corresponds to a therapeutic epitope and m corresponds to an adjacent therapeutic epitope concatenated after the therapeutic epitope, and P is a path matrix given by:

$P = [\begin{matrix} 0 & 0^{1 \times v} \\ 0^{v \times 1} & D \end{matrix}],$

wherein D is a v×v matrix in which element D(k,m) indicates the distance metric of the ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes k,m; and selecting the cassette sequence based on the solved values for x_km.

The method may further comprise the steps of manufacturing or having manufactured a tumor vaccine comprising the cassette sequence.

Also disclosed herein is a method of identifying a cassette sequence for a neoantigen vaccine, comprising the steps of obtaining, for a patient, at least one of exome, transcriptome, or whole genome tumor nucleotide sequencing data from the tumor cells and normal cells of the subject, wherein the nucleotide sequencing data is used to obtain data representing peptide sequences of each of a set of neoantigens identified by comparing the nucleotide sequencing data from the tumor cells and the nucleotide sequencing data from the normal cells, wherein the peptide sequence of each neoantigen comprises at least one alteration that makes it distinct from a corresponding wild-type, parental peptide sequence identified from the normal cells of the subject and includes information regarding a plurality of amino acids that make up the peptide sequence and a set of positions of the amino acids in the peptide sequence; identifying, for the subject, a treatment subset of neoantigens from the set of neoantigens; and identifying, for the subject, the cassette sequence comprising a sequence of concatenated therapeutic epitopes that each include the peptide sequence of a corresponding neoantigen in the treatment subset of neoantigens, wherein the cassette sequence is identified based on presentation of one or more junction epitopes that span corresponding junctions between one or more adjacent pairs of therapeutic epitopes.

The presentation of the one or more junction epitopes may be determined based on presentation likelihoods generated by inputting sequences of the one or more junction epitopes into a machine-learned presentation model, the presentation likelihoods indicating likelihood that the one or more junction epitopes are presented by one or more MHC alleles on a surface of the tumor cell of the patient, the set of presentation likelihoods having been identified at least based on received mass spectrometry data.

The presentation of the one or more junction epitopes may be determined based on binding affinity predictions between the one or more junction epitopes and one or more MHC alleles of the subject.

The presentation of the one or more junction epitopes may be determined based on binding stability predictions of the one or more junction epitopes.

Identifying the cassette sequence may further comprise the steps of generating a set of candidate cassette sequences corresponding to different sequences of the therapeutic epitopes; for each candidate cassette sequence, determining presentation score for the candidate cassette sequence based on the distance metrics for each ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes in the candidate cassette sequence; and selecting a candidate cassette sequence associated with a presentation score below a predetermined threshold as the cassette sequence for the neoantigen vaccine.

The set of candidate cassette sequences may be randomly generated.

Identifying the cassette sequence may further comprise the steps of solving for values of xkm in the following optimization problem:

$P = [\begin{matrix} 0 & 0^{1 \times v} \\ 0^{v \times 1} & D \end{matrix}],$

The method may further comprise the step of having manufactured a tumor vaccine comprising the cassette sequence.

Also disclosed herein is a method of identifying a cassette sequence for a neoantigen vaccine, comprising the steps of obtaining peptide sequences for a treatment subset of shared antigens or a treatment subset of shared neoantigens for treating a plurality of subjects, the treatment subset corresponding to a predetermined number of peptide sequences having presentation likelihoods above a predetermined threshold; and identifying the cassette sequence comprising a sequence of concatenated therapeutic epitopes that each include a corresponding peptide sequence in the treatment subset of shared antigens or the treatment subset of shared neoantigens, wherein identifying the cassette sequence comprises determining, for each ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes, a set of junction epitopes that span the junction between the ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes; and determining, for each ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes, a distance metric indicating presentation of the set of junction epitopes for the ordered pair, wherein the distance metric is determined as a combination of a set of weights each indicating prevalence of a corresponding MHC allele, with a corresponding sub-distance metric indicating presentation likelihoods of the set of junction epitopes on the MHC allele.

Also disclosed herein is a tumor vaccine comprising a cassette sequence including a sequence of concatenated therapeutic epitopes, the cassette sequence identified by performing the steps of obtaining, for a patient, at least one of exome, transcriptome, or whole genome tumor nucleotide sequencing data from the tumor cells and normal cells of the subject, wherein the nucleotide sequencing data is used to obtain data representing peptide sequences of each of a set of neoantigens identified by comparing the nucleotide sequencing data from the tumor cells and the nucleotide sequencing data from the normal cells, wherein the peptide sequence of each neoantigen comprises at least one alteration that makes it distinct from a corresponding wild-type, parental peptide sequence identified from the normal cells of the subject and includes information regarding a plurality of amino acids that make up the peptide sequence and a set of positions of the amino acids in the peptide sequence; identifying, for the subject, a treatment subset of neoantigens from the set of neoantigens; and identifying, for the subject, the cassette sequence comprising a sequence of concatenated therapeutic epitopes that each include the peptide sequence of a corresponding neoantigen in the treatment subset of neoantigens, wherein the cassette sequence is identified based on presentation of one or more junction epitopes that span corresponding junctions between one or more adjacent pairs of therapeutic epitopes.

The presentation of the one or more junction epitopes are determined based on presentation likelihoods generated by inputting sequences of the one or more junction epitopes into a machine-learned presentation model, the presentation likelihoods indicating likelihood that the one or more junction epitopes are presented by one or more MHC alleles on a surface of the tumor cell of the patient, the set of presentation likelihoods having been identified at least based on received mass spectrometry data.

The presentation of the one or more junction epitopes may be determined based on binding affinity predictions between the one or more junction epitopes and one or more MHC alleles of the subject.

The presentation of the one or more junction epitopes may be determined based on binding stability predictions of the one or more junction epitopes.

The set of candidate cassette sequences may be randomly generated.

Identifying the cassette sequence may further comprise the steps of solving for values of xkm in the following optimization problem:

wherein v corresponds to the predetermined number of neoantigens, corresponds to a therapeutic epitope and m corresponds to an adjacent therapeutic epitope concatenated after the first therapeutic epitope, and P is a path matrix given by:

$P = [\begin{matrix} 0 & 0^{1 \times v} \\ 0^{v \times 1} & D \end{matrix}],$

The tumor vaccine of claim 24, further comprising manufacturing or having manufactured a tumor vaccine comprising the cassette sequence.

Also disclosed herein is a tumor vaccine comprising a cassette sequence including a sequence of concatenated therapeutic epitopes, the cassette sequence ordered such that that each include the peptide sequence of a corresponding neoantigen in a treatment subset of neoantigens, wherein the sequence of therapeutic epitopes is identified based on presentation of one or more junction epitopes that span corresponding junctions between one or more adjacent pairs of therapeutic epitopes, wherein the junction epitopes of the cassette sequence have an HLA binding affinity below a threshold binding affinity.

The threshold binding affinity may be 1000 NM or greater.

Also disclosed herein is a tumor vaccine comprising a cassette sequence including a sequence of concatenated therapeutic epitopes, the cassette sequence ordered such that that each include the peptide sequence of a corresponding neoantigen in treatment subset of neoantigens, wherein the sequence of therapeutic epitopes is identified based on presentation of one or more junction epitopes that span corresponding junctions between one or more adjacent pairs of therapeutic epitopes, wherein at least a threshold percentage of the junction epitopes of the cassette sequence have a presentation likelihood below a threshold presentation likelihood.

The threshold percentage may be 50%.

III. Identification of Tumor Specific Mutations in Neoantigens

Also disclosed herein are methods for the identification of certain mutations (e.g., the variants or alleles that are present in cancer cells). In particular, these mutations can be present in the genome, transcriptome, proteome, or exome of cancer cells of a subject having cancer but not in normal tissue from the subject.

Genetic mutations in tumors can be considered useful for the immunological targeting of tumors if they lead to changes in the amino acid sequence of a protein exclusively in the tumor. Useful mutations include: (1) non-synonymous mutations leading to different amino acids in the protein; (2) read-through mutations in which a stop codon is modified or deleted, leading to translation of a longer protein with a novel tumor-specific sequence at the C-terminus; (3) splice site mutations that lead to the inclusion of an intron in the mature mRNA and thus a unique tumor-specific protein sequence; (4) chromosomal rearrangements that give rise to a chimeric protein with tumor-specific sequences at the junction of 2 proteins (i.e., gene fusion); (5) frameshift mutations or deletions that lead to a new open reading frame with a novel tumor-specific protein sequence. Mutations can also include one or more of nonframeshift indel, missense or nonsense substitution, splice site alteration, genomic rearrangement or gene fusion, or any genomic or expression alteration giving rise to a neoORF.

Peptides with mutations or mutated polypeptides arising from for example, splice-site, frameshift, readthrough, or gene fusion mutations in tumor cells can be identified by sequencing DNA, RNA or protein in tumor versus normal cells.

Also mutations can include previously identified tumor specific mutations. Known tumor mutations can be found at the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) database.

A variety of methods are available for detecting the presence of a particular mutation or allele in an individual's DNA or RNA. Advancements in this field have provided accurate, easy, and inexpensive large-scale SNP genotyping. For example, several techniques have been described including dynamic allele-specific hybridization (DASH), microplate array diagonal gel electrophoresis (MADGE), pyrosequencing, oligonucleotide-specific ligation, the TaqMan system as well as various DNA “chip” technologies such as the Affymetrix SNP chips. These methods utilize amplification of a target genetic region, typically by PCR. Still other methods, based on the generation of small signal molecules by invasive cleavage followed by mass spectrometry or immobilized padlock probes and rolling-circle amplification. Several of the methods known in the art for detecting specific mutations are summarized below.

PCR based detection means can include multiplex amplification of a plurality of markers simultaneously. For example, it is well known in the art to select PCR primers to generate PCR products that do not overlap in size and can be analyzed simultaneously. Alternatively, it is possible to amplify different markers with primers that are differentially labeled and thus can each be differentially detected. Of course, hybridization based detection means allow the differential detection of multiple PCR products in a sample. Other techniques are known in the art to allow multiplex analyses of a plurality of markers.

Several methods have been developed to facilitate analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms in genomic DNA or cellular RNA. For example, a single base polymorphism can be detected by using a specialized exonuclease-resistant nucleotide, as disclosed, e.g., in Mundy, C. R. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,127). According to the method, a primer complementary to the allelic sequence immediately 3′ to the polymorphic site is permitted to hybridize to a target molecule obtained from a particular animal or human. If the polymorphic site on the target molecule contains a nucleotide that is complementary to the particular exonuclease-resistant nucleotide derivative present, then that derivative will be incorporated onto the end of the hybridized primer. Such incorporation renders the primer resistant to exonuclease, and thereby permits its detection. Since the identity of the exonuclease-resistant derivative of the sample is known, a finding that the primer has become resistant to exonucleases reveals that the nucleotide(s) present in the polymorphic site of the target molecule is complementary to that of the nucleotide derivative used in the reaction. This method has the advantage that it does not require the determination of large amounts of extraneous sequence data.

A solution-based method can be used for determining the identity of a nucleotide of a polymorphic site. Cohen, D. et al. (French Patent 2,650,840; PCT Appln. No. WO91/02087). As in the Mundy method of U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,127, a primer is employed that is complementary to allelic sequences immediately 3′ to a polymorphic site. The method determines the identity of the nucleotide of that site using labeled dideoxynucleotide derivatives, which, if complementary to the nucleotide of the polymorphic site will become incorporated onto the terminus of the primer. An alternative method, known as Genetic Bit Analysis or GBA is described by Goelet, P. et al. (PCT Appln. No. 92/15712). The method of Goelet, P. et al. uses mixtures of labeled terminators and a primer that is complementary to the sequence 3′ to a polymorphic site. The labeled terminator that is incorporated is thus determined by, and complementary to, the nucleotide present in the polymorphic site of the target molecule being evaluated. In contrast to the method of Cohen et al. (French Patent 2,650,840; PCT Appln. No. WO91/02087) the method of Goelet, P. et al. can be a heterogeneous phase assay, in which the primer or the target molecule is immobilized to a solid phase.

Several primer-guided nucleotide incorporation procedures for assaying polymorphic sites in DNA have been described (Komher, J. S. et al., Nucl. Acids. Res. 17:7779-7784 (1989); Sokolov, B. P., Nucl. Acids Res. 18:3671 (1990); Syvanen, A.-C., et al., Genomics 8:684-692 (1990); Kuppuswamy, M. N. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (U.S.A.) 88:1143-1147 (1991); Prezant, T. R. et al., Hum. Mutat. 1:159-164 (1992); Ugozzoli, L. et al., GATA 9:107-112 (1992); Nyren, P. et al., Anal. Biochem. 208:171-175 (1993)). These methods differ from GBA in that they utilize incorporation of labeled deoxynucleotides to discriminate between bases at a polymorphic site. In such a format, since the signal is proportional to the number of deoxynucleotides incorporated, polymorphisms that occur in runs of the same nucleotide can result in signals that are proportional to the length of the run (Syvanen, A.-C., et al., Amer. J. Hum. Genet. 52:46-59 (1993)).

A number of initiatives obtain sequence information directly from millions of individual molecules of DNA or RNA in parallel. Real-time single molecule sequencing-by-synthesis technologies rely on the detection of fluorescent nucleotides as they are incorporated into a nascent strand of DNA that is complementary to the template being sequenced. In one method, oligonucleotides 30-50 bases in length are covalently anchored at the 5′ end to glass cover slips. These anchored strands perform two functions. First, they act as capture sites for the target template strands if the templates are configured with capture tails complementary to the surface-bound oligonucleotides. They also act as primers for the template directed primer extension that forms the basis of the sequence reading. The capture primers function as a fixed position site for sequence determination using multiple cycles of synthesis, detection, and chemical cleavage of the dye-linker to remove the dye. Each cycle consists of adding the polymerase/labeled nucleotide mixture, rinsing, imaging and cleavage of dye. In an alternative method, polymerase is modified with a fluorescent donor molecule and immobilized on a glass slide, while each nucleotide is color-coded with an acceptor fluorescent moiety attached to a gamma-phosphate. The system detects the interaction between a fluorescently-tagged polymerase and a fluorescently modified nucleotide as the nucleotide becomes incorporated into the de novo chain. Other sequencing-by-synthesis technologies also exist.

Any suitable sequencing-by-synthesis platform can be used to identify mutations. As described above, four major sequencing-by-synthesis platforms are currently available: the Genome Sequencers from Roche/454 Life Sciences, the 1G Analyzer from Illumina/Solexa, the SOLiD system from Applied BioSystems, and the Heliscope system from Helicos Biosciences. Sequencing-by-synthesis platforms have also been described by Pacific BioSciences and VisiGen Biotechnologies. In some embodiments, a plurality of nucleic acid molecules being sequenced is bound to a support (e.g., solid support). To immobilize the nucleic acid on a support, a capture sequence/universal priming site can be added at the 3′ and/or 5′ end of the template. The nucleic acids can be bound to the support by hybridizing the capture sequence to a complementary sequence covalently attached to the support. The capture sequence (also referred to as a universal capture sequence) is a nucleic acid sequence complementary to a sequence attached to a support that may dually serve as a universal primer.

As an alternative to a capture sequence, a member of a coupling pair (such as, e.g., antibody/antigen, receptor/ligand, or the avidin-biotin pair as described in, e.g., US Patent Application No. 2006/0252077) can be linked to each fragment to be captured on a surface coated with a respective second member of that coupling pair.

Subsequent to the capture, the sequence can be analyzed, for example, by single molecule detection/sequencing, e.g., as described in the Examples and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,283,337, including template-dependent sequencing-by-synthesis. In sequencing-by-synthesis, the surface-bound molecule is exposed to a plurality of labeled nucleotide triphosphates in the presence of polymerase. The sequence of the template is determined by the order of labeled nucleotides incorporated into the 3′ end of the growing chain. This can be done in real time or can be done in a step-and-repeat mode. For real-time analysis, different optical labels to each nucleotide can be incorporated and multiple lasers can be utilized for stimulation of incorporated nucleotides.

Sequencing can also include other massively parallel sequencing or next generation sequencing (NGS) techniques and platforms. Additional examples of massively parallel sequencing techniques and platforms are the Illumina HiSeq or MiSeq, Thermo PGM or Proton, the Pac Bio RS II or Sequel, Qiagen's Gene Reader, and the Oxford Nanopore MinION. Additional similar current massively parallel sequencing technologies can be used, as well as future generations of these technologies.

Any cell type or tissue can be utilized to obtain nucleic acid samples for use in methods described herein. For example, a DNA or RNA sample can be obtained from a tumor or a bodily fluid, e.g., blood, obtained by known techniques (e.g. venipuncture) or saliva. Alternatively, nucleic acid tests can be performed on dry samples (e.g. hair or skin). In addition, a sample can be obtained for sequencing from a tumor and another sample can be obtained from normal tissue for sequencing where the normal tissue is of the same tissue type as the tumor. A sample can be obtained for sequencing from a tumor and another sample can be obtained from normal tissue for sequencing where the normal tissue is of a distinct tissue type relative to the tumor.

Tumors can include one or more of lung cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, gastric cancer, colon cancer, testicular cancer, head and neck cancer, pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, B-cell lymphoma, acute myelogenous leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and T cell lymphocytic leukemia, non-small cell lung cancer, and small cell lung cancer.

Alternatively, protein mass spectrometry can be used to identify or validate the presence of mutated peptides bound to MHC proteins on tumor cells. Peptides can be acid-eluted from tumor cells or from HLA molecules that are immunoprecipitated from tumor, and then identified using mass spectrometry.

IV. Neoantigens

Neoantigens can include nucleotides or polypeptides. For example, a neoantigen can be an RNA sequence that encodes for a polypeptide sequence. Neoantigens useful in vaccines can therefore include nucleotide sequences or polypeptide sequences.

Disclosed herein are isolated peptides that comprise tumor specific mutations identified by the methods disclosed herein, peptides that comprise known tumor specific mutations, and mutant polypeptides or fragments thereof identified by methods disclosed herein. Neoantigen peptides can be described in the context of their coding sequence where a neoantigen includes the nucleotide sequence (e.g., DNA or RNA) that codes for the related polypeptide sequence.

One or more polypeptides encoded by a neoantigen nucleotide sequence can comprise at least one of: a binding affinity with MHC with an IC50 value of less than 1000 nM, for MHC Class I peptides a length of 8-15, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 amino acids, presence of sequence motifs within or near the peptide promoting proteasome cleavage, and presence or sequence motifs promoting TAP transport. For MHC Class II peptides a length 6-30, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, or 30 amino acids, presence of sequence motifs within or near the peptide promoting cleavage by extracellular or lysosomal proteases (e.g., cathepsins) or HLA-DM catalyzed HLA binding.

One or more neoantigens can be presented on the surface of a tumor.

One or more neoantigens can be is immunogenic in a subject having a tumor, e.g., capable of eliciting a T cell response or a B cell response in the subject.

One or more neoantigens that induce an autoimmune response in a subject can be excluded from consideration in the context of vaccine generation for a subject having a tumor.

The size of at least one neoantigenic peptide molecule can comprise, but is not limited to, about 5, about 6, about 7, about 8, about 9, about 10, about 11, about 12, about 13, about 14, about 15, about 16, about 17, about 18, about 19, about 20, about 21, about 22, about 23, about 24, about 25, about 26, about 27, about 28, about 29, about 30, about 31, about 32, about 33, about 34, about 35, about 36, about 37, about 38, about 39, about 40, about 41, about 42, about 43, about 44, about 45, about 46, about 47, about 48, about 49, about 50, about 60, about 70, about 80, about 90, about 100, about 110, about 120 or greater amino molecule residues, and any range derivable therein. In specific embodiments the neoantigenic peptide molecules are equal to or less than 50 amino acids.

Neoantigenic peptides and polypeptides can be: for MHC Class 115 residues or less in length and usually consist of between about 8 and about 11 residues, particularly 9 or 10 residues; for MHC Class II, 6-30 residues, inclusive.

If desirable, a longer peptide can be designed in several ways. In one case, when presentation likelihoods of peptides on HLA alleles are predicted or known, a longer peptide could consist of either: (1) individual presented peptides with an extensions of 2-5 amino acids toward the N- and C-terminus of each corresponding gene product; (2) a concatenation of some or all of the presented peptides with extended sequences for each. In another case, when sequencing reveals a long (>10 residues) neoepitope sequence present in the tumor (e.g. due to a frameshift, read-through or intron inclusion that leads to a novel peptide sequence), a longer peptide would consist of: (3) the entire stretch of novel tumor-specific amino acids—thus bypassing the need for computational or in vitro test-based selection of the strongest HLA-presented shorter peptide. In both cases, use of a longer peptide allows endogenous processing by patient cells and may lead to more effective antigen presentation and induction of T cell responses.

Neoantigenic peptides and polypeptides can be presented on an HLA protein. In some aspects neoantigenic peptides and polypeptides are presented on an HLA protein with greater affinity than a wild-type peptide. In some aspects, a neoantigenic peptide or polypeptide can have an IC50 of at least less than 5000 nM, at least less than 1000 nM, at least less than 500 nM, at least less than 250 nM, at least less than 200 nM, at least less than 150 nM, at least less than 100 nM, at least less than 50 nM or less.

In some aspects, neoantigenic peptides and polypeptides do not induce an autoimmune response and/or invoke immunological tolerance when administered to a subject.

Also provided are compositions comprising at least two or more neoantigenic peptides. In some embodiments the composition contains at least two distinct peptides. At least two distinct peptides can be derived from the same polypeptide. By distinct polypeptides is meant that the peptide vary by length, amino acid sequence, or both. The peptides are derived from any polypeptide known to or have been found to contain a tumor specific mutation. Suitable polypeptides from which the neoantigenic peptides can be derived can be found for example in the COSMIC database. COSMIC curates comprehensive information on somatic mutations in human cancer. The peptide contains the tumor specific mutation. In some aspects the tumor specific mutation is a driver mutation for a particular cancer type.

Neoantigenic peptides and polypeptides having a desired activity or property can be modified to provide certain desired attributes, e.g., improved pharmacological characteristics, while increasing or at least retaining substantially all of the biological activity of the unmodified peptide to bind the desired MHC molecule and activate the appropriate T cell. For instance, neoantigenic peptide and polypeptides can be subject to various changes, such as substitutions, either conservative or non-conservative, where such changes might provide for certain advantages in their use, such as improved MHC binding, stability or presentation. By conservative substitutions is meant replacing an amino acid residue with another which is biologically and/or chemically similar, e.g., one hydrophobic residue for another, or one polar residue for another. The substitutions include combinations such as Gly, Ala; Val, Ile, Leu, Met; Asp, Glu; Asn, Gln; Ser, Thr; Lys, Arg; and Phe, Tyr. The effect of single amino acid substitutions may also be probed using D-amino acids. Such modifications can be made using well known peptide synthesis procedures, as described in e.g., Merrifield, Science 232:341-347 (1986), Barany & Merrifield, The Peptides, Gross & Meienhofer, eds. (N.Y., Academic Press), pp. 1-284 (1979); and Stewart & Young, Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis, (Rockford, Ill., Pierce), 2d Ed. (1984).

Modifications of peptides and polypeptides with various amino acid mimetics or unnatural amino acids can be particularly useful in increasing the stability of the peptide and polypeptide in vivo. Stability can be assayed in a number of ways. For instance, peptidases and various biological media, such as human plasma and serum, have been used to test stability. See, e.g., Verhoef et al., Eur. J. Drug Metab Pharmacokin. 11:291-302 (1986). Half-life of the peptides can be conveniently determined using a 25% human serum (v/v) assay. The protocol is generally as follows. Pooled human serum (Type AB, non-heat inactivated) is delipidated by centrifugation before use. The serum is then diluted to 25% with RPMI tissue culture media and used to test peptide stability. At predetermined time intervals a small amount of reaction solution is removed and added to either 6% aqueous trichloracetic acid or ethanol. The cloudy reaction sample is cooled (4 degrees C.) for 15 minutes and then spun to pellet the precipitated serum proteins. The presence of the peptides is then determined by reversed-phase HPLC using stability-specific chromatography conditions.

The peptides and polypeptides can be modified to provide desired attributes other than improved serum half-life. For instance, the ability of the peptides to induce CTL activity can be enhanced by linkage to a sequence which contains at least one epitope that is capable of inducing a T helper cell response. Immunogenic peptides/T helper conjugates can be linked by a spacer molecule. The spacer is typically comprised of relatively small, neutral molecules, such as amino acids or amino acid mimetics, which are substantially uncharged under physiological conditions. The spacers are typically selected from, e.g., Ala, Gly, or other neutral spacers of nonpolar amino acids or neutral polar amino acids. It will be understood that the optionally present spacer need not be comprised of the same residues and thus can be a hetero- or homo-oligomer. When present, the spacer will usually be at least one or two residues, more usually three to six residues. Alternatively, the peptide can be linked to the T helper peptide without a spacer.

A neoantigenic peptide can be linked to the T helper peptide either directly or via a spacer either at the amino or carboxy terminus of the peptide. The amino terminus of either the neoantigenic peptide or the T helper peptide can be acylated. Exemplary T helper peptides include tetanus toxoid 830-843, influenza 307-319, malaria circumsporozoite 382-398 and 378-389.

Proteins or peptides can be made by any technique known to those of skill in the art, including the expression of proteins, polypeptides or peptides through standard molecular biological techniques, the isolation of proteins or peptides from natural sources, or the chemical synthesis of proteins or peptides. The nucleotide and protein, polypeptide and peptide sequences corresponding to various genes have been previously disclosed, and can be found at computerized databases known to those of ordinary skill in the art. One such database is the National Center for Biotechnology Information's Genbank and GenPept databases located at the National Institutes of Health website. The coding regions for known genes can be amplified and/or expressed using the techniques disclosed herein or as would be known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Alternatively, various commercial preparations of proteins, polypeptides and peptides are known to those of skill in the art.

In a further aspect a neoantigen includes a nucleic acid (e.g. polynucleotide) that encodes a neoantigenic peptide or portion thereof. The polynucleotide can be, e.g., DNA, cDNA, PNA, CNA, RNA (e.g., mRNA), either single- and/or double-stranded, or native or stabilized forms of polynucleotides, such as, e.g., polynucleotides with a phosphorothiate backbone, or combinations thereof and it may or may not contain introns. A still further aspect provides an expression vector capable of expressing a polypeptide or portion thereof. Expression vectors for different cell types are well known in the art and can be selected without undue experimentation. Generally, DNA is inserted into an expression vector, such as a plasmid, in proper orientation and correct reading frame for expression. If necessary, DNA can be linked to the appropriate transcriptional and translational regulatory control nucleotide sequences recognized by the desired host, although such controls are generally available in the expression vector. The vector is then introduced into the host through standard techniques. Guidance can be found e.g. in Sambrook et al. (1989) Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.

V. Vaccine Compositions

Also disclosed herein is an immunogenic composition, e.g., a vaccine composition, capable of raising a specific immune response, e.g., a tumor-specific immune response. Vaccine compositions typically comprise a plurality of neoantigens, e.g., selected using a method described herein. Vaccine compositions can also be referred to as vaccines.

A vaccine can contain between 1 and 30 peptides, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, or 30 different peptides, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 11, 12, 13, or 14 different peptides, or 12, 13 or 14 different peptides. Peptides can include post-translational modifications. A vaccine can contain between 1 and 100 or more nucleotide sequences, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100 or more different nucleotide sequences, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 11, 12, 13, or 14 different nucleotide sequences, or 12, 13 or 14 different nucleotide sequences. A vaccine can contain between 1 and 30 neoantigen sequences, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100 or more different neoantigen sequences, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 11, 12, 13, or 14 different neoantigen sequences, or 12, 13 or 14 different neoantigen sequences.

In one embodiment, different peptides and/or polypeptides or nucleotide sequences encoding them are selected so that the peptides and/or polypeptides capable of associating with different MHC molecules, such as different MHC class I molecules and/or different MHC class II molecules. In some aspects, one vaccine composition comprises coding sequence for peptides and/or polypeptides capable of associating with the most frequently occurring MHC class I molecules and/or MHC class II molecules. Hence, vaccine compositions can comprise different fragments capable of associating with at least 2 preferred, at least 3 preferred, or at least 4 preferred MHC class I molecules and/or MHC class II molecules.

The vaccine composition can be capable of raising a specific cytotoxic T-cells response and/or a specific helper T-cell response.

A vaccine composition can further comprise an adjuvant and/or a carrier. Examples of useful adjuvants and carriers are given herein below. A composition can be associated with a carrier such as e.g. a protein or an antigen-presenting cell such as e.g. a dendritic cell (DC) capable of presenting the peptide to a T-cell.

Adjuvants are any substance whose admixture into a vaccine composition increases or otherwise modifies the immune response to a neoantigen. Carriers can be scaffold structures, for example a polypeptide or a polysaccharide, to which a neoantigen, is capable of being associated. Optionally, adjuvants are conjugated covalently or non-covalently.

The ability of an adjuvant to increase an immune response to an antigen is typically manifested by a significant or substantial increase in an immune-mediated reaction, or reduction in disease symptoms. For example, an increase in humoral immunity is typically manifested by a significant increase in the titer of antibodies raised to the antigen, and an increase in T-cell activity is typically manifested in increased cell proliferation, or cellular cytotoxicity, or cytokine secretion. An adjuvant may also alter an immune response, for example, by changing a primarily humoral or Th response into a primarily cellular, or Th response.

Suitable adjuvants include, but are not limited to 1018 ISS, alum, aluminium salts, Amplivax, AS15, BCG, CP-870,893, CpG7909, CyaA, dSLIM, GM-CSF, IC30, IC31, Imiquimod, ImuFact IMP321, IS Patch, ISS, ISCOMATRIX, JuvImmune, LipoVac, MF59, monophosphoryl lipid A, Montanide IMS 1312, Montanide ISA 206, Montanide ISA 50V, Montanide ISA-51, OK-432, OM-174, OM-197-MP-EC, ONTAK, PepTel vector system, PLG microparticles, resiquimod, SRL172, Virosomes and other Virus-like particles, YF-17D, VEGF trap, R848, beta-glucan, Pam3Cys, Aquila's QS21 stimulon (Aquila Biotech, Worcester, Mass., USA) which is derived from saponin, mycobacterial extracts and synthetic bacterial cell wall mimics, and other proprietary adjuvants such as Ribi's Detox. Quil or Superfos. Adjuvants such as incomplete Freund's or GM-CSF are useful. Several immunological adjuvants (e.g., MF59) specific for dendritic cells and their preparation have been described previously (Dupuis M, et al., Cell Immunol. 1998; 186(1):18-27; Allison A C; Dev Biol Stand. 1998; 92:3-11). Also cytokines can be used. Several cytokines have been directly linked to influencing dendritic cell migration to lymphoid tissues (e.g., TNF-alpha), accelerating the maturation of dendritic cells into efficient antigen-presenting cells for T-lymphocytes (e.g., GM-CSF, IL-1 and IL-4) (U.S. Pat. No. 5,849,589, specifically incorporated herein by reference in its entirety) and acting as immunoadjuvants (e.g., IL-12) (Gabrilovich D I, et al., J Immunother Emphasis Tumor Immunol. 1996 (6):414-418).

CpG immunostimulatory oligonucleotides have also been reported to enhance the effects of adjuvants in a vaccine setting. Other TLR binding molecules such as RNA binding TLR 7, TLR 8 and/or TLR 9 may also be used.

Other examples of useful adjuvants include, but are not limited to, chemically modified CpGs (e.g. CpR, Idera), Poly(I:C)(e.g. polyi:CI2U), non-CpG bacterial DNA or RNA as well as immunoactive small molecules and antibodies such as cyclophosphamide, sunitinib, bevacizumab, celebrex, NCX-4016, sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil, sorafinib, XL-999, CP-547632, pazopanib, ZD2171, AZD2171, ipilimumab, tremelimumab, and SC58175, which may act therapeutically and/or as an adjuvant. The amounts and concentrations of adjuvants and additives can readily be determined by the skilled artisan without undue experimentation. Additional adjuvants include colony-stimulating factors, such as Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF, sargramostim).

A vaccine composition can comprise more than one different adjuvant. Furthermore, a therapeutic composition can comprise any adjuvant substance including any of the above or combinations thereof. It is also contemplated that a vaccine and an adjuvant can be administered together or separately in any appropriate sequence.

A carrier (or excipient) can be present independently of an adjuvant. The function of a carrier can for example be to increase the molecular weight of in particular mutant to increase activity or immunogenicity, to confer stability, to increase the biological activity, or to increase serum half-life. Furthermore, a carrier can aid presenting peptides to T-cells. A carrier can be any suitable carrier known to the person skilled in the art, for example a protein or an antigen presenting cell. A carrier protein could be but is not limited to keyhole limpet hemocyanin, serum proteins such as transferrin, bovine serum albumin, human serum albumin, thyroglobulin or ovalbumin, immunoglobulins, or hormones, such as insulin or palmitic acid. For immunization of humans, the carrier is generally a physiologically acceptable carrier acceptable to humans and safe. However, tetanus toxoid and/or diptheria toxoid are suitable carriers. Alternatively, the carrier can be dextrans for example sepharose.

Cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs) recognize an antigen in the form of a peptide bound to an MHC molecule rather than the intact foreign antigen itself. The MHC molecule itself is located at the cell surface of an antigen presenting cell. Thus, an activation of CTLs is possible if a trimeric complex of peptide antigen, MHC molecule, and APC is present. Correspondingly, it may enhance the immune response if not only the peptide is used for activation of CTLs, but if additionally APCs with the respective MHC molecule are added. Therefore, in some embodiments a vaccine composition additionally contains at least one antigen presenting cell.

Neoantigens can also be included in viral vector-based vaccine platforms, such as vaccinia, fowlpox, self-replicating alphavirus, marabavirus, adenovirus (See, e.g., Tatsis et al., Adenoviruses, Molecular Therapy (2004) 10, 616-629), or lentivirus, including but not limited to second, third or hybrid second/third generation lentivirus and recombinant lentivirus of any generation designed to target specific cell types or receptors (See, e.g., Hu et al., Immunization Delivered by Lentiviral Vectors for Cancer and Infectious Diseases, Immunol Rev. (2011) 239(1): 45-61, Sakuma et al., Lentiviral vectors: basic to translational, Biochem J. (2012) 443(3):603-18, Cooper et al., Rescue of splicing-mediated intron loss maximizes expression in lentiviral vectors containing the human ubiquitin C promoter, Nucl. Acids Res. (2015) 43 (1): 682-690, Zufferey et al., Self-Inactivating Lentivirus Vector for Safe and Efficient In Vivo Gene Delivery, J. Virol. (1998) 72 (12): 9873-9880). Dependent on the packaging capacity of the above mentioned viral vector-based vaccine platforms, this approach can deliver one or more nucleotide sequences that encode one or more neoantigen peptides. The sequences may be flanked by non-mutated sequences, may be separated by linkers or may be preceded with one or more sequences targeting a subcellular compartment (See, e.g., Gros et al., Prospective identification of neoantigen-specific lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of melanoma patients, Nat Med. (2016) 22 (4):433-8, Stronen et al., Targeting of cancer neoantigens with donor-derived T cell receptor repertoires, Science. (2016) 352 (6291):1337-41, Lu et al., Efficient identification of mutated cancer antigens recognized by T cells associated with durable tumor regressions, Clin Cancer Res. (2014) 20(13):3401-10). Upon introduction into a host, infected cells express the neoantigens, and thereby elicit a host immune (e.g., CTL) response against the peptide(s). Vaccinia vectors and methods useful in immunization protocols are described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,848. Another vector is BCG (Bacille Calmette Guerin). BCG vectors are described in Stover et al. (Nature 351:456-460 (1991)). A wide variety of other vaccine vectors useful for therapeutic administration or immunization of neoantigens, e.g., Salmonella typhi vectors, and the like will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description herein.

V.A. Neoantigen Cassette

The methods employed for the selection of one or more neoantigens, the cloning and construction of a “cassette” and its insertion into a viral vector are within the skill in the art given the teachings provided herein. By “neoantigen cassette” is meant the combination of a selected neoantigen or plurality of neoantigens and the other regulatory elements necessary to transcribe the neoantigen(s) and express the transcribed product. A neoantigen or plurality of neoantigens can be operatively linked to regulatory components in a manner which permits transcription. Such components include conventional regulatory elements that can drive expression of the neoantigen(s) in a cell transfected with the viral vector. Thus the neoantigen cassette can also contain a selected promoter which is linked to the neoantigen(s) and located, with other, optional regulatory elements, within the selected viral sequences of the recombinant vector.

Useful promoters can be constitutive promoters or regulated (inducible) promoters, which will enable control of the amount of neoantigen(s) to be expressed. For example, a desirable promoter is that of the cytomegalovirus immediate early promoter/enhancer [see, e.g., Boshart et al, Cell, 41:521-530 (1985)]. Another desirable promoter includes the Rous sarcoma virus LTR promoter/enhancer. Still another promoter/enhancer sequence is the chicken cytoplasmic beta-actin promoter [T. A. Kost et al, Nucl. Acids Res., 11(23):8287 (1983)]. Other suitable or desirable promoters can be selected by one of skill in the art.

The neoantigen cassette can also include nucleic acid sequences heterologous to the viral vector sequences including sequences providing signals for efficient polyadenylation of the transcript (poly-A or pA) and introns with functional splice donor and acceptor sites. A common poly-A sequence which is employed in the exemplary vectors of this invention is that derived from the papovavirus SV-40. The poly-A sequence generally can be inserted in the cassette following the neoantigen-based sequences and before the viral vector sequences. A common intron sequence can also be derived from SV-40, and is referred to as the SV-40 T intron sequence. A neoantigen cassette can also contain such an intron, located between the promoter/enhancer sequence and the neoantigen(s). Selection of these and other common vector elements are conventional [see, e.g., Sambrook et al, “Molecular Cloning. A Laboratory Manual.”, 2d edit., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York (1989) and references cited therein] and many such sequences are available from commercial and industrial sources as well as from Genbank.

A neoantigen cassette can have one or more neoantigens. For example, a given cassette can include 1-10, 1-20, 1-30, 10-20, 15-25, 15-20, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, or more neoantigens. Neoantigens can be linked directly to one another. Neoantigens can also be linked to one another with linkers. Neoantigens can be in any orientation relative to one another including N to C or C to N.

As above stated, the neoantigen cassette can be located in the site of any selected deletion in the viral vector, such as the site of the E1 gene region deletion or E3 gene region deletion, among others which may be selected.

V.B. Immune Checkpoints

Vectors described herein, such as C68 vectors described herein or alphavirus vectors described herein, can comprise a nucleic acid which encodes at least one neoantigen and the same or a separate vector can comprise a nucleic acid which encodes at least one immune modulator (e.g., an antibody such as an scFv) which binds to and blocks the activity of an immune checkpoint molecule. Vectors can comprise a neoantigen cassette and one or more nucleic acid molecules encoding a checkpoint inhibitor.

Illustrative immune checkpoint molecules that can be targeted for blocking or inhibition include, but are not limited to, CTLA-4, 4-1BB (CD137), 4-1BBL (CD137L), PDL1, PDL2, PD1, B7-H3, B7-H4, BTLA, HVEM, TIM3, GAL9, LAG3, TIM3, B7H3, B7H4, VISTA, KIR, 2B4 (belongs to the CD2 family of molecules and is expressed on all NK, γδ, and memory CD8+(αβ) T cells), CD160 (also referred to as BY55), and CGEN-15049. Immune checkpoint inhibitors include antibodies, or antigen binding fragments thereof, or other binding proteins, that bind to and block or inhibit the activity of one or more of CTLA-4, PDL1, PDL2, PD1, B7-H3, B7-H4, BTLA, HVEM, TIM3, GAL9, LAG3, TIM3, B7H3, B7H4, VISTA, KIR, 2B4, CD160, and CGEN-15049. Illustrative immune checkpoint inhibitors include Tremelimumab (CTLA-4 blocking antibody), anti-OX40, PD-L1 monoclonal Antibody (Anti-B7-H1; MEDI4736), ipilimumab, MK-3475 (PD-1 blocker), Nivolumamb (anti-PD1 antibody), CT-011 (anti-PD1 antibody), BY55 monoclonal antibody, AMP224 (anti-PDL1 antibody), BMS-936559 (anti-PDL1 antibody), MPLDL3280A (anti-PDL1 antibody), MSB0010718C (anti-PDL1 antibody) and Yervoy/ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4 checkpoint inhibitor). Antibody-encoding sequences can be engineered into vectors such as C68 using ordinary skill in the art. An exemplary method is described in Fang et al., Stable antibody expression at therapeutic levels using the 2A peptide. Nat Biotechnol. 2005 May; 23(5):584-90. Epub 2005 Apr. 17; herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.

V.A. Additional Considerations for Vaccine Design and Manufacture
V.A.1. Determination of a Set of Peptides that Cover all Tumor Subclones

Truncal peptides, meaning those presented by all or most tumor subclones, will be prioritized for inclusion into the vaccine.⁵³Optionally, if there are no truncal peptides predicted to be presented and immunogenic with high probability, or if the number of truncal peptides predicted to be presented and immunogenic with high probability is small enough that additional non-truncal peptides can be included in the vaccine, then further peptides can be prioritized by estimating the number and identity of tumor subclones and choosing peptides so as to maximize the number of tumor subclones covered by the vaccine.⁵⁴

V.A.2. Neoantigen Prioritization

After all of the above neoantigen filters are applied, more candidate neoantigens may still be available for vaccine inclusion than the vaccine technology can support. Additionally, uncertainty about various aspects of the neoantigen analysis may remain and tradeoffs may exist between different properties of candidate vaccine neoantigens. Thus, in place of predetermined filters at each step of the selection process, an integrated multi-dimensional model can be considered that places candidate neoantigens in a space with at least the following axes and optimizes selection using an integrative approach.

- 1. Risk of auto-immunity or tolerance (risk of germline) (lower risk of auto-immunity is typically preferred)
- 2. Probability of sequencing artifact (lower probability of artifact is typically preferred)
- 3. Probability of immunogenicity (higher probability of immunogenicity is typically preferred)
- 4. Probability of presentation (higher probability of presentation is typically preferred)
- 5. Gene expression (higher expression is typically preferred)
- 6. Coverage of HLA genes (larger number of HLA molecules involved in the presentation of a set of neoantigens may lower the probability that a tumor will escape immune attack via downregulation or mutation of HLA molecules)
- 7. Coverage of HLA classes (covering both HLA-I and HLA-II may increase the probability of therapeutic response and decrease the probability of tumor escape)

VI. Therapeutic and Manufacturing Methods

Also provided is a method of inducing a tumor specific immune response in a subject, vaccinating against a tumor, treating and or alleviating a symptom of cancer in a subject by administering to the subject one or more neoantigens such as a plurality of neoantigens identified using methods disclosed herein.

In some aspects, a subject has been diagnosed with cancer or is at risk of developing cancer. A subject can be a human, dog, cat, horse or any animal in which a tumor specific immune response is desired. A tumor can be any solid tumor such as breast, ovarian, prostate, lung, kidney, gastric, colon, testicular, head and neck, pancreas, brain, melanoma, and other tumors of tissue organs and hematological tumors, such as lymphomas and leukemias, including acute myelogenous leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, T cell lymphocytic leukemia, and B cell lymphomas.

A neoantigen can be administered in an amount sufficient to induce a CTL response.

A neoantigen can be administered alone or in combination with other therapeutic agents. The therapeutic agent is for example, a chemotherapeutic agent, radiation, or immunotherapy. Any suitable therapeutic treatment for a particular cancer can be administered.

In addition, a subject can be further administered an anti-immunosuppressive/immunostimulatory agent such as a checkpoint inhibitor. For example, the subject can be further administered an anti-CTLA antibody or anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1. Blockade of CTLA-4 or PD-L1 by antibodies can enhance the immune response to cancerous cells in the patient. In particular, CTLA-4 blockade has been shown effective when following a vaccination protocol.

The optimum amount of each neoantigen to be included in a vaccine composition and the optimum dosing regimen can be determined. For example, a neoantigen or its variant can be prepared for intravenous (i.v.) injection, sub-cutaneous (s.c.) injection, intradermal (i.d.) injection, intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection, intramuscular (i.m.) injection. Methods of injection include s.c., i.d., i.p., i.m., and i.v. Methods of DNA or RNA injection include i.d., i.m., s.c., i.p. and i.v. Other methods of administration of the vaccine composition are known to those skilled in the art.

A vaccine can be compiled so that the selection, number and/or amount of neoantigens present in the composition is/are tissue, cancer, and/or patient-specific. For instance, the exact selection of peptides can be guided by expression patterns of the parent proteins in a given tissue. The selection can be dependent on the specific type of cancer, the status of the disease, earlier treatment regimens, the immune status of the patient, and, of course, the HLA-haplotype of the patient. Furthermore, a vaccine can contain individualized components, according to personal needs of the particular patient. Examples include varying the selection of neoantigens according to the expression of the neoantigen in the particular patient or adjustments for secondary treatments following a first round or scheme of treatment.

For a composition to be used as a vaccine for cancer, neoantigens with similar normal self-peptides that are expressed in high amounts in normal tissues can be avoided or be present in low amounts in a composition described herein. On the other hand, if it is known that the tumor of a patient expresses high amounts of a certain neoantigen, the respective pharmaceutical composition for treatment of this cancer can be present in high amounts and/or more than one neoantigen specific for this particularly neoantigen or pathway of this neoantigen can be included.

Compositions comprising a neoantigen can be administered to an individual already suffering from cancer. In therapeutic applications, compositions are administered to a patient in an amount sufficient to elicit an effective CTL response to the tumor antigen and to cure or at least partially arrest symptoms and/or complications. An amount adequate to accomplish this is defined as “therapeutically effective dose.” Amounts effective for this use will depend on, e.g., the composition, the manner of administration, the stage and severity of the disease being treated, the weight and general state of health of the patient, and the judgment of the prescribing physician. It should be kept in mind that compositions can generally be employed in serious disease states, that is, life-threatening or potentially life threatening situations, especially when the cancer has metastasized. In such cases, in view of the minimization of extraneous substances and the relative nontoxic nature of a neoantigen, it is possible and can be felt desirable by the treating physician to administer substantial excesses of these compositions.

For therapeutic use, administration can begin at the detection or surgical removal of tumors. This is followed by boosting doses until at least symptoms are substantially abated and for a period thereafter.

The pharmaceutical compositions (e.g., vaccine compositions) for therapeutic treatment are intended for parenteral, topical, nasal, oral or local administration. A pharmaceutical compositions can be administered parenterally, e.g., intravenously, subcutaneously, intradermally, or intramuscularly. The compositions can be administered at the site of surgical excision to induce a local immune response to the tumor. Disclosed herein are compositions for parenteral administration which comprise a solution of the neoantigen and vaccine compositions are dissolved or suspended in an acceptable carrier, e.g., an aqueous carrier. A variety of aqueous carriers can be used, e.g., water, buffered water, 0.9% saline, 0.3% glycine, hyaluronic acid and the like. These compositions can be sterilized by conventional, well known sterilization techniques, or can be sterile filtered. The resulting aqueous solutions can be packaged for use as is, or lyophilized, the lyophilized preparation being combined with a sterile solution prior to administration. The compositions may contain pharmaceutically acceptable auxiliary substances as required to approximate physiological conditions, such as pH adjusting and buffering agents, tonicity adjusting agents, wetting agents and the like, for example, sodium acetate, sodium lactate, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride, sorbitan monolaurate, triethanolamine oleate, etc.

Neoantigens can also be administered via liposomes, which target them to a particular cells tissue, such as lymphoid tissue. Liposomes are also useful in increasing half-life. Liposomes include emulsions, foams, micelles, insoluble monolayers, liquid crystals, phospholipid dispersions, lamellar layers and the like. In these preparations the neoantigen to be delivered is incorporated as part of a liposome, alone or in conjunction with a molecule which binds to, e.g., a receptor prevalent among lymphoid cells, such as monoclonal antibodies which bind to the CD45 antigen, or with other therapeutic or immunogenic compositions. Thus, liposomes filled with a desired neoantigen can be directed to the site of lymphoid cells, where the liposomes then deliver the selected therapeutic/immunogenic compositions. Liposomes can be formed from standard vesicle-forming lipids, which generally include neutral and negatively charged phospholipids and a sterol, such as cholesterol. The selection of lipids is generally guided by consideration of, e.g., liposome size, acid lability and stability of the liposomes in the blood stream. A variety of methods are available for preparing liposomes, as described in, e.g., Szoka et al., Ann. Rev. Biophys. Bioeng. 9; 467 (1980), U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,235,871, 4,501,728, 4,501,728, 4,837,028, and 5,019,369.

For targeting to the immune cells, a ligand to be incorporated into the liposome can include, e.g., antibodies or fragments thereof specific for cell surface determinants of the desired immune system cells. A liposome suspension can be administered intravenously, locally, topically, etc. in a dose which varies according to, inter alia, the manner of administration, the peptide being delivered, and the stage of the disease being treated.

For therapeutic or immunization purposes, nucleic acids encoding a peptide and optionally one or more of the peptides described herein can also be administered to the patient. A number of methods are conveniently used to deliver the nucleic acids to the patient. For instance, the nucleic acid can be delivered directly, as “naked DNA”. This approach is described, for instance, in Wolff et al., Science 247: 1465-1468 (1990) as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,580,859 and 5,589,466. The nucleic acids can also be administered using ballistic delivery as described, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,253. Particles comprised solely of DNA can be administered. Alternatively, DNA can be adhered to particles, such as gold particles. Approaches for delivering nucleic acid sequences can include viral vectors, mRNA vectors, and DNA vectors with or without electroporation.

The nucleic acids can also be delivered complexed to cationic compounds, such as cationic lipids. Lipid-mediated gene delivery methods are described, for instance, in 9618372WOAWO 96/18372; 9324640WOAWO 93/24640; Mannino & Gould-Fogerite, BioTechniques 6(7): 682-691 (1988); U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,833 Rose U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,279,833; 9,106,309WOAWO 91/06309; and Felgner et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84: 7413-7414 (1987).

A means of administering nucleic acids uses minigene constructs encoding one or multiple epitopes. To create a DNA sequence encoding the selected CTL epitopes (minigene) for expression in human cells, the amino acid sequences of the epitopes are reverse translated. A human codon usage table is used to guide the codon choice for each amino acid. These epitope-encoding DNA sequences are directly adjoined, creating a continuous polypeptide sequence. To optimize expression and/or immunogenicity, additional elements can be incorporated into the minigene design. Examples of amino acid sequence that could be reverse translated and included in the minigene sequence include: helper T lymphocyte, epitopes, a leader (signal) sequence, and an endoplasmic reticulum retention signal. In addition, MHC presentation of CTL epitopes can be improved by including synthetic (e.g. poly-alanine) or naturally-occurring flanking sequences adjacent to the CTL epitopes. The minigene sequence is converted to DNA by assembling oligonucleotides that encode the plus and minus strands of the minigene. Overlapping oligonucleotides (30-100 bases long) are synthesized, phosphorylated, purified and annealed under appropriate conditions using well known techniques. The ends of the oligonucleotides are joined using T4 DNA ligase. This synthetic minigene, encoding the CTL epitope polypeptide, can then cloned into a desired expression vector.

Purified plasmid DNA can be prepared for injection using a variety of formulations. The simplest of these is reconstitution of lyophilized DNA in sterile phosphate-buffer saline (PBS). A variety of methods have been described, and new techniques can become available. As noted above, nucleic acids are conveniently formulated with cationic lipids. In addition, glycolipids, fusogenic liposomes, peptides and compounds referred to collectively as protective, interactive, non-condensing (PINC) could also be complexed to purified plasmid DNA to influence variables such as stability, intramuscular dispersion, or trafficking to specific organs or cell types.

Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing a tumor vaccine, comprising performing the steps of a method disclosed herein; and producing a tumor vaccine comprising a plurality of neoantigens or a subset of the plurality of neoantigens.

Neoantigens disclosed herein can be manufactured using methods known in the art. For example, a method of producing a neoantigen or a vector (e.g., a vector including at least one sequence encoding one or more neoantigens) disclosed herein can include culturing a host cell under conditions suitable for expressing the neoantigen or vector wherein the host cell comprises at least one polynucleotide encoding the neoantigen or vector, and purifying the neoantigen or vector. Standard purification methods include chromatographic techniques, electrophoretic, immunological, precipitation, dialysis, filtration, concentration, and chromatofocusing techniques.

Host cells can include a Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell, NSO cell, yeast, or a HEK293 cell. Host cells can be transformed with one or more polynucleotides comprising at least one nucleic acid sequence that encodes a neoantigen or vector disclosed herein, optionally wherein the isolated polynucleotide further comprises a promoter sequence operably linked to the at least one nucleic acid sequence that encodes the neoantigen or vector. In certain embodiments the isolated polynucleotide can be cDNA.

VII. Neoantigen Identification
VII.A. Neoantigen Candidate Identification

Research methods for NGS analysis of tumor and normal exome and transcriptomes have been described and applied in the neoantigen identification space.^6,14,15The example below considers certain optimizations for greater sensitivity and specificity for neoantigen identification in the clinical setting. These optimizations can be grouped into two areas, those related to laboratory processes and those related to the NGS data analysis.

VII.A.1. Laboratory Process Optimizations

The process improvements presented here address challenges in high-accuracy neoantigen discovery from clinical specimens with low tumor content and small volumes by extending concepts developed for reliable cancer driver gene assessment in targeted cancer panels¹⁶to the whole- exome and -transcriptome setting necessary for neoantigen identification. Specifically, these improvements include:

- 1. Targeting deep (>500×) unique average coverage across the tumor exome to detect mutations present at low mutant allele frequency due to either low tumor content or subclonal state.
- 2. Targeting uniform coverage across the tumor exome, with <5% of bases covered at <100×, so that the fewest possible neoantigens are missed, by, for instance:
- a. Employing DNA-based capture probes with individual probe QC¹⁷
- b. Including additional baits for poorly covered regions
- 3. Targeting uniform coverage across the normal exome, where <5% of bases are covered at <20× so that the fewest neoantigens possible remain unclassified for somatic/germline status (and thus not usable as TSNAs)
- 4. To minimize the total amount of sequencing required, sequence capture probes will be designed for coding regions of genes only, as non-coding RNA cannot give rise to neoantigens. Additional optimizations include:
- a. supplementary probes for HLA genes, which are GC-rich and poorly captured by standard exome sequencing¹⁸
- b. exclusion of genes predicted to generate few or no candidate neoantigens, due to factors such as insufficient expression, suboptimal digestion by the proteasome, or unusual sequence features.
- 5. Tumor RNA will likewise be sequenced at high depth (>100M reads) in order to enable variant detection, quantification of gene and splice-variant (“isoform”) expression, and fusion detection. RNA from FFPE samples will be extracted using probe-based enrichment¹⁹, with the same or similar probes used to capture exomes in DNA.

VII.A.2. NGS Data Analysis Optimizations

Improvements in analysis methods address the suboptimal sensitivity and specificity of common research mutation calling approaches, and specifically consider customizations relevant for neoantigen identification in the clinical setting. These include:

- 1. Using the HG38 reference human genome or a later version for alignment, as it contains multiple MHC regions assemblies better reflective of population polymorphism, in contrast to previous genome releases.
- 2. Overcoming the limitations of single variant callers²⁰by merging results from different programs⁵
- a. Single-nucleotide variants and indels will be detected from tumor DNA, tumor RNA and normal DNA with a suite of tools including: programs based on comparisons of tumor and normal DNA, such as Strelka²¹and Mutect²²; and programs that incorporate tumor DNA, tumor RNA and normal DNA, such as UNCeqR, which is particularly advantageous in low-purity samples²³
- b. Indels will be determined with programs that perform local re-assembly, such as Strelka and ABRA²⁴.
- c. Structural rearrangements will be determined using dedicated tools such as Pindel²⁵or Breakseq²⁶.
- 3. In order to detect and prevent sample swaps, variant calls from samples for the same patient will be compared at a chosen number of polymorphic sites.
- 4. Extensive filtering of artefactual calls will be performed, for instance, by:
- a. Removal of variants found in normal DNA, potentially with relaxed detection parameters in cases of low coverage, and with a permissive proximity criterion in case of indels
- b. Removal of variants due to low mapping quality or low base quality²⁷
- c. Removal of variants stemming from recurrent sequencing artifacts, even if not observed in the corresponding normal²⁷. Examples include variants primarily detected on one strand.
- d. Removal of variants detected in an unrelated set of controls²⁷
- 5. Accurate HLA calling from normal exome using one of seq2HLA²⁸ATHLATES²⁹or Optitype and also combining exome and RNA sequencing data²⁸. Additional potential optimizations include the adoption of a dedicated assay for HLA typing such as long-read DNA sequencing³⁰, or the adaptation of a method for joining RNA fragments to retain continuity³¹.
- 6. Robust detection of neo-ORFs arising from tumor-specific splice variants will be performed by assembling transcripts from RNA-seq data using CLASS³², Bayesembler³³, StringTie³⁴or a similar program in its reference-guided mode (i.e., using known transcript structures rather than attempting to recreate transcripts in their entirety from each experiment). While Cufflinks³⁵is commonly used for this purpose, it frequently produces implausibly large numbers of splice variants, many of them far shorter than the full-length gene, and can fail to recover simple positive controls. Coding sequences and nonsense-mediated decay potential will be determined with tools such as SpliceR³⁶and MAMBA³⁷, with mutant sequences re-introduced. Gene expression will be determined with a tool such as Cufflinks³⁵or Express (Roberts and Pachter, 2013). Wild-type and mutant-specific expression counts and/or relative levels will be determined with tools developed for these purposes, such as ASE³⁸or HTSeq³⁹. Potential filtering steps include:
- a. Removal of candidate neo-ORFs deemed to be insufficiently expressed.
- b. Removal of candidate neo-ORFs predicted to trigger non-sense mediated decay (NMD).
- 7. Candidate neoantigens observed only in RNA (e.g., neoORFs) that cannot directly be verified as tumor-specific will be categorized as likely tumor-specific according to additional parameters, for instance by considering:
- a. Presence of supporting tumor DNA-only cis-acting frameshift or splice-site mutations
- b. Presence of corroborating tumor DNA-only trans-acting mutation in a splicing factor. For instance, in three independently published experiments with R625-mutant SF3B1, the genes exhibiting the most differentially splicing were concordant even though one experiment examined uveal melanoma patients⁴⁰, the second a uveal melanoma cell line⁴¹, and the third breast cancer patients⁴².
- c. For novel splicing isoforms, presence of corroborating “novel” splice-junction reads in the RNASeq data.
- d. For novel re-arrangements, presence of corroborating juxta-exon reads in tumor DNA that are absent from normal DNA
- e. Absence from gene expression compendium such as GTEx⁴³(i.e. making germline origin less likely)
- 8. Complementing the reference genome alignment-based analysis by comparing assembled DNA tumor and normal reads (or k-mers from such reads) directly to avoid alignment and annotation based errors and artifacts. (e.g. for somatic variants arising near germline variants or repeat-context indels)

In samples with poly-adenylated RNA, the presence of viral and microbial RNA in the RNA-seq data will be assessed using RNA CoMPASS⁴⁴or a similar method, toward the identification of additional factors that may predict patient response.

VI.B. Isolation and Detection of HLA Peptides

Isolation of HLA-peptide molecules was performed using classic immunoprecipitation (IP) methods after lysis and solubilization of the tissue sample^55-58. A clarified lysate was used for HLA specific IP.

Immunoprecipitation was performed using antibodies coupled to beads where the antibody is specific for HLA molecules. For a pan-Class I HLA immunoprecipitation, a pan-Class I CR antibody is used, for Class II HLA-DR, an HLA-DR antibody is used. Antibody is covalently attached to NHS-sepharose beads during overnight incubation. After covalent attachment, the beads were washed and aliquoted for IP.^59-60Immunoprecipitations can also be performed with antibodies that are not covalently attached to beads. Typically this is done using sepharose or magnetic beads coated with Protein A and/or Protein G to hold the antibody to the column. Some antibodies that can be used to selectively enrich MHC/peptide complex are listed below.

Antibody Name
Specificity

W6/32
Class I HLA-A, B, C

L243
Class II - HLA-DR

Tu36
Class II - HLA-DR

LN3
Class II - HLA-DR

Tu39
Class II - HLA-DR, DP, DQ

The clarified tissue lysate is added to the antibody beads for the immunoprecipitation. After immunoprecipitation, the beads are removed from the lysate and the lysate stored for additional experiments, including additional IPs. The IP beads are washed to remove non-specific binding and the HLA/peptide complex is eluted from the beads using standard techniques. The protein components are removed from the peptides using a molecular weight spin column or C18 fractionation. The resultant peptides are taken to dryness by SpeedVac evaporation and in some instances are stored at −20 C prior to MS analysis.

Dried peptides are reconstituted in an HPLC buffer suitable for reverse phase chromatography and loaded onto a C-18 microcapillary HPLC column for gradient elution in a Fusion Lumos mass spectrometer (Thermo). MS1 spectra of peptide mass/charge (m/z) were collected in the Orbitrap detector at high resolution followed by MS2 low resolution scans collected in the ion trap detector after HCD fragmentation of the selected ion. Additionally, MS2 spectra can be obtained using either CID or ETD fragmentation methods or any combination of the three techniques to attain greater amino acid coverage of the peptide. MS2 spectra can also be measured with high resolution mass accuracy in the Orbitrap detector.

MS2 spectra from each analysis are searched against a protein database using Comet^61,62and the peptide identification are scored using Percolator^63-65. Additional sequencing is performed using PEAKS studio (Bioinformatics Solutions Inc.) and other search engines or sequencing methods can be used including spectral matching and de novo sequencing⁷⁵.

VII.B.1. MS Limit of Detection Studies in Support of Comprehensive HLA Peptide Sequencing

Using the peptide YVYVADVAAK (SEQ ID NO: 1) it was determined what the limits of detection are using different amounts of peptide loaded onto the LC column. The amounts of peptide tested were 1 μmol, 100 fmol, 10 fmol, 1 fmol, and 100 amol. (Table 1) The results are shown in FIG. 1F. These results indicate that the lowest limit of detection (LoD) is in the attomol range (10⁻¹⁸), that the dynamic range spans five orders of magnitude, and that the signal to noise appears sufficient for sequencing at low femtomol ranges (10⁻¹⁵).

Copies/Cell in

Peptide m/z

Loaded on Column
1e9 cells

566.830
1
pmol
600

562.823
100
fmol
60

559.816
10
fmol
6

556.810
1
fmol
0.6

553.802
100
amol
0.06

VIII. Presentation Model
VIII.A. System Overview

FIG. 2A is an overview of an environment 100 for identifying likelihoods of peptide presentation in patients, in accordance with an embodiment. The environment 100 provides context in order to introduce a presentation identification system 160, itself including a presentation information store 165.

The presentation identification system 160 is one or computer models, embodied in a computing system as discussed below with respect to FIG. 14, that receives peptide sequences associated with a set of MHC alleles and determines likelihoods that the peptide sequences will be presented by one or more of the set of associated MHC alleles. The presentation identification system 160 may be applied to both class I and class II MHC alleles. This is useful in a variety of contexts. One specific use case for the presentation identification system 160 is that it is able to receive nucleotide sequences of candidate neoantigens associated with a set of MHC alleles from tumor cells of a patient 110 and determine likelihoods that the candidate neoantigens will be presented by one or more of the associated MHC alleles of the tumor and/or induce immunogenic responses in the immune system of the patient 110. Those candidate neoantigens with high likelihoods as determined by system 160 can be selected for inclusion in a vaccine 118, such an anti-tumor immune response can be elicited from the immune system of the patient 110 providing the tumor cells.

The presentation identification system 160 determines presentation likelihoods through one or more presentation models. Specifically, the presentation models generate likelihoods of whether given peptide sequences will be presented for a set of associated MHC alleles, and are generated based on presentation information stored in store 165. For example, the presentation models may generate likelihoods of whether a peptide sequence “YVYVADVAAK” (SEQ ID NO: 1) will be presented for the set of alleles HLA-A*02:01, HLA-A*03:01, HLA-B*07:02, HLA-B*08:03, HLA-C*01:04 on the cell surface of the sample. The presentation information 165 contains information on whether peptides bind to different types of MHC alleles such that those peptides are presented by MHC alleles, which in the models is determined depending on positions of amino acids in the peptide sequences. The presentation model can predict whether an unrecognized peptide sequence will be presented in association with an associated set of MHC alleles based on the presentation information 165. As previously mentioned, the presentation models may be applied to both class I and class II MHC alleles.

VIII.B. Presentation Information

FIG. 2 illustrates a method of obtaining presentation information, in accordance with an embodiment. The presentation information 165 includes two general categories of information: allele-interacting information and allele-noninteracting information. Allele-interacting information includes information that influence presentation of peptide sequences that are dependent on the type of MHC allele. Allele-noninteracting information includes information that influence presentation of peptide sequences that are independent on the type of MHC allele.

VIII.B.1. Allele-Interacting Information

Allele-interacting information primarily includes identified peptide sequences that are known to have been presented by one or more identified MHC molecules from humans, mice, etc. Notably, this may or may not include data obtained from tumor samples. The presented peptide sequences may be identified from cells that express a single MHC allele. In this case the presented peptide sequences are generally collected from single-allele cell lines that are engineered to express a predetermined MHC allele and that are subsequently exposed to synthetic protein. Peptides presented on the MHC allele are isolated by techniques such as acid-elution and identified through mass spectrometry. FIG. 2B shows an example of this, where the example peptide YEMFNDKSQRAPDDKMF (SEQ ID NO: 2), presented on the predetermined MHC allele HLA-DRB1*12:01, is isolated and identified through mass spectrometry. Since in this situation peptides are identified through cells engineered to express a single predetermined MHC protein, the direct association between a presented peptide and the MHC protein to which it was bound to is definitively known.

The presented peptide sequences may also be collected from cells that express multiple MHC alleles. Typically in humans, 6 different types of MHC-I and up to 12 different types of MHC-II molecules are expressed for a cell. Such presented peptide sequences may be identified from multiple-allele cell lines that are engineered to express multiple predetermined MHC alleles. Such presented peptide sequences may also be identified from tissue samples, either from normal tissue samples or tumor tissue samples. In this case particularly, the MHC molecules can be immunoprecipitated from normal or tumor tissue. Peptides presented on the multiple MHC alleles can similarly be isolated by techniques such as acid-elution and identified through mass spectrometry. FIG. 2C shows an example of this, where the six example peptides, YEMFNDKSF (SEQ ID NO: 3), HROEIFSHDFJ (SEQ ID NO: 4), FJIEJFOESS (SEQ ID NO: 5), NEIOREIREI (SEQ ID NO: 6), JFKSIFEMMSJDSSUIFLKSJFIEIFJ (SEQ ID NO: 7), and KNFLENFIESOFI (SEQ ID NO: 8), are presented on identified class I MHC alleles HLA-A*01:01, HLA-A*02:01, HLA-B*07:02, HLA-B*08:01, and class II MHC alleles HLA-DRB1*10:01, HLA-DRB1:11:01 and are isolated and identified through mass spectrometry. In contrast to single-allele cell lines, the direct association between a presented peptide and the MHC protein to which it was bound to may be unknown since the bound peptides are isolated from the MHC molecules before being identified.

Allele-interacting information can also include mass spectrometry ion current which depends on both the concentration of peptide-MHC molecule complexes, and the ionization efficiency of peptides. The ionization efficiency varies from peptide to peptide in a sequence-dependent manner. Generally, ionization efficiency varies from peptide to peptide over approximately two orders of magnitude, while the concentration of peptide-MHC complexes varies over a larger range than that.

Allele-interacting information can also include measurements or predictions of binding affinity between a given MHC allele and a given peptide. (72, 73, 74) One or more affinity models can generate such predictions. For example, going back to the example shown in FIG. 1D, presentation information 165 may include a binding affinity prediction of 1000 nM between the peptide YEMFNDKSF (SEQ ID NO: 3) and the class I allele HLA-A*01:01. Few peptides with IC50>1000 nm are presented by the MHC, and lower IC50 values increase the probability of presentation. Presentation information 165 may include a binding affinity prediction between the peptide KNFLENFIESOFI (SEQ ID NO: 8) and the class II allele HLA-DRB1:11:01.

Allele-interacting information can also include measurements or predictions of stability of the MHC complex. One or more stability models that can generate such predictions. More stable peptide-MHC complexes (i.e., complexes with longer half-lives) are more likely to be presented at high copy number on tumor cells and on antigen-presenting cells that encounter vaccine antigen. For example, going back to the example shown in FIG. 2C, presentation information 165 may include a stability prediction of a half-life of 1 h for the class I molecule HLA-A*01:01. Presentation information 165 may also include a stability prediction of a half-life for the class II molecule HLA-DRB1:11:01.

Allele-interacting information can also include the measured or predicted rate of the formation reaction for the peptide-MHC complex. Complexes that form at a higher rate are more likely to be presented on the cell surface at high concentration.

Allele-interacting information can also include the sequence and length of the peptide. MHC class I molecules typically prefer to present peptides with lengths between 8 and 15 peptides. 60-80% of presented peptides have length 9. MHC class II molecules typically prefer to present peptides with lengths between 6-30 peptides.

Allele-interacting information can also include the presence of kinase sequence motifs on the neoantigen encoded peptide, and the absence or presence of specific post-translational modifications on the neoantigen encoded peptide. The presence of kinase motifs affects the probability of post-translational modification, which may enhance or interfere with MHC binding.

Allele-interacting information can also include the expression or activity levels of proteins involved in the process of post-translational modification, e.g., kinases (as measured or predicted from RNA seq, mass spectrometry, or other methods).

Allele-interacting information can also include the probability of presentation of peptides with similar sequence in cells from other individuals expressing the particular MHC allele as assessed by mass-spectrometry proteomics or other means.

Allele-interacting information can also include the expression levels of the particular MHC allele in the individual in question (e.g. as measured by RNA-seq or mass spectrometry). Peptides that bind most strongly to an MHC allele that is expressed at high levels are more likely to be presented than peptides that bind most strongly to an MHC allele that is expressed at a low level.

Allele-interacting information can also include the overall neoantigen encoded peptide-sequence-independent probability of presentation by the particular MHC allele in other individuals who express the particular MHC allele.

Allele-interacting information can also include the overall peptide-sequence-independent probability of presentation by MHC alleles in the same family of molecules (e.g., HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, HLA-DQ, HLA-DR, HLA-DP) in other individuals. For example, HLA-C molecules are typically expressed at lower levels than HLA-A or HLA-B molecules, and consequently, presentation of a peptide by HLA-C is a priori less probable than presentation by HLA-A or HLA-B. For another example, HLA-DP is typically expressed at lower levels than HLA-DR or HLA-DQ; consequently, presentation of a peptide by HLA-DP is a prior less probable than presentation by HLA-DR or HLA-DQ.

Allele-interacting information can also include the protein sequence of the particular MHC allele.

Any MHC allele-noninteracting information listed in the below section can also be modeled as an MHC allele-interacting information.

VIII.B.2. Allele-Noninteracting Information

Allele-noninteracting information can include C-terminal sequences flanking the neoantigen encoded peptide within its source protein sequence. For MHC-I, C-terminal flanking sequences may impact proteasomal processing of peptides. However, the C-terminal flanking sequence is cleaved from the peptide by the proteasome before the peptide is transported to the endoplasmic reticulum and encounters MHC alleles on the surfaces of cells. Consequently, MHC molecules receive no information about the C-terminal flanking sequence, and thus, the effect of the C-terminal flanking sequence cannot vary depending on MHC allele type. For example, going back to the example shown in FIG. 2C, presentation information 165 may include the C-terminal flanking sequence FOEIFNDKSLDKFJI (SEQ ID NO: 9) of the presented peptide FJIEJFOESS (SEQ ID NO: 5) identified from the source protein of the peptide.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include mRNA quantification measurements. For example, mRNA quantification data can be obtained for the same samples that provide the mass spectrometry training data. As later described in reference to FIG. 13H, RNA expression was identified to be a strong predictor of peptide presentation. In one embodiment, the mRNA quantification measurements are identified from software tool RSEM. Detailed implementation of the RSEM software tool can be found at Bo Li and Colin N. Dewey. RSEM: accurate transcript quantification from RNA—Seq data with or without a reference genome. BMC Bioinformatics, 12:323, August 2011. In one embodiment, the mRNA quantification is measured in units of fragments per kilobase of transcript per Million mapped reads (FPKM).

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the N-terminal sequences flanking the peptide within its source protein sequence.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the source gene of the peptide sequence. The source gene may be defined as the Ensembl protein family of the peptide sequence. In other examples, the source gene may be defined as the source DNA or the source RNA of the peptide sequence. The source gene can, for example, be represented as a string of nucleotides that encode for a protein, or alternatively be more categorically represented based on a named set of known DNA or RNA sequences that are known to encode specific proteins. In another example, allele-noninteracting information can also include the source transcript or isoform or set of potential source transcripts or isoforms of the peptide sequence drawn from a database such as Ensembl or RefSeq.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the tissue type, cell type or tumor type of cells of origin of the peptide sequence.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the presence of protease cleavage motifs in the peptide, optionally weighted according to the expression of corresponding proteases in the tumor cells (as measured by RNA-seq or mass spectrometry). Peptides that contain protease cleavage motifs are less likely to be presented, because they will be more readily degraded by proteases, and will therefore be less stable within the cell.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the turnover rate of the source protein as measured in the appropriate cell type. Faster turnover rate (i.e., lower half-life) increases the probability of presentation; however, the predictive power of this feature is low if measured in a dissimilar cell type.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the length of the source protein, optionally considering the specific splice variants (“isoforms”) most highly expressed in the tumor cells as measured by RNA-seq or proteome mass spectrometry, or as predicted from the annotation of germline or somatic splicing mutations detected in DNA or RNA sequence data.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the level of expression of the proteasome, immunoproteasome, thymoproteasome, or other proteases in the tumor cells (which may be measured by RNA-seq, proteome mass spectrometry, or immunohistochemistry). Different proteasomes have different cleavage site preferences. More weight will be given to the cleavage preferences of each type of proteasome in proportion to its expression level.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the expression of the source gene of the peptide (e.g., as measured by RNA-seq or mass spectrometry). Possible optimizations include adjusting the measured expression to account for the presence of stromal cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes within the tumor sample. Peptides from more highly expressed genes are more likely to be presented. Peptides from genes with undetectable levels of expression can be excluded from consideration.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the probability that the source mRNA of the neoantigen encoded peptide will be subject to nonsense-mediated decay as predicted by a model of nonsense-mediated decay, for example, the model from Rivas et al, Science 2015.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the typical tissue-specific expression of the source gene of the peptide during various stages of the cell cycle. Genes that are expressed at a low level overall (as measured by RNA-seq or mass spectrometry proteomics) but that are known to be expressed at a high level during specific stages of the cell cycle are likely to produce more presented peptides than genes that are stably expressed at very low levels.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include a comprehensive catalog of features of the source protein as given in e.g. uniProt or PDB http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/home/home.do. These features may include, among others: the secondary and tertiary structures of the protein, subcellular localization 11, Gene ontology (GO) terms. Specifically, this information may contain annotations that act at the level of the protein, e.g., 5′ UTR length, and annotations that act at the level of specific residues, e.g., helix motif between residues 300 and 310. These features can also include turn motifs, sheet motifs, and disordered residues.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include features describing the properties of the domain of the source protein containing the peptide, for example: secondary or tertiary structure (e.g., alpha helix vs beta sheet); Alternative splicing.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include features describing the presence or absence of a presentation hotspot at the position of the peptide in the source protein of the peptide.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the probability of presentation of peptides from the source protein of the peptide in question in other individuals (after adjusting for the expression level of the source protein in those individuals and the influence of the different HLA types of those individuals).

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the probability that the peptide will not be detected or over-represented by mass spectrometry due to technical biases.

The expression of various gene modules/pathways as measured by a gene expression assay such as RNASeq, microarray(s), targeted panel(s) such as Nanostring, or single/multi-gene representatives of gene modules measured by assays such as RT-PCR (which need not contain the source protein of the peptide) that are informative about the state of the tumor cells, stroma, or tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the copy number of the source gene of the peptide in the tumor cells. For example, peptides from genes that are subject to homozygous deletion in tumor cells can be assigned a probability of presentation of zero.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the probability that the peptide binds to the TAP or the measured or predicted binding affinity of the peptide to the TAP. Peptides that are more likely to bind to the TAP, or peptides that bind the TAP with higher affinity are more likely to be presented by MHC-I.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the expression level of TAP in the tumor cells (which may be measured by RNA-seq, proteome mass spectrometry, immunohistochemistry). For MHC-I, higher TAP expression levels increase the probability of presentation of all peptides.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the presence or absence of tumor mutations, including, but not limited to:

- i. Driver mutations in known cancer driver genes such as EGFR, KRAS, ALK, RET, ROS1, TP53, CDKN2A, CDKN2B, NTRK1, NTRK2, NTRK3
- ii. In genes encoding the proteins involved in the antigen presentation machinery (e.g., B2M, HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, TAP-1, TAP-2, TAPBP, CALR, CNX, ERP57, HLA-DM, HLA-DMA, HLA-DMB, HLA-DO, HLA-DOA, HLA-DOBHLA-DP, HLA-DPA1, HLA-DPB1, HLA-DQ, HLA-DQA1, HLA-DQA2, HLA-DQB1, HLA-DQB2, HLA-DR, HLA-DRA, HLA-DRB1, HLA-DRB3, HLA-DRB4, HLA-DRB5 or any of the genes coding for components of the proteasome or immunoproteasome). Peptides whose presentation relies on a component of the antigen-presentation machinery that is subject to loss-of-function mutation in the tumor have reduced probability of presentation.

Presence or absence of functional germline polymorphisms, including, but not limited to:

- i. In genes encoding the proteins involved in the antigen presentation machinery (e.g., B2M, HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, TAP-1, TAP-2, TAPBP, CALR, CNX, ERP57, HLA-DM, HLA-DMA, HLA-DMB, HLA-DO, HLA-DOA, HLA-DOBHLA-DP, HLA-DPA1, HLA-DPB1, HLA-DQ, HLA-DQA1, HLA-DQA2, HLA-DQB1, HLA-DQB2, HLA-DR, HLA-DRA, HLA-DRB1, HLA-DRB3, HLA-DRB4, HLA-DRB5 or any of the genes coding for components of the proteasome or immunoproteasome)

Allele-noninteracting information can also include tumor type (e.g., NSCLC, melanoma).

Allele-noninteracting information can also include known functionality of HLA alleles, as reflected by, for instance HLA allele suffixes. For example, the N suffix in the allele name HLA-A*24:09N indicates a null allele that is not expressed and is therefore unlikely to present epitopes; the full HLA allele suffix nomenclature is described at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ipd/imgt/hla/nomenclature/suffixes.html.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include clinical tumor subtype (e.g., squamous lung cancer vs. non-squamous).

Allele-noninteracting information can also include smoking history.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include history of sunburn, sun exposure, or exposure to other mutagens.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the typical expression of the source gene of the peptide in the relevant tumor type or clinical subtype, optionally stratified by driver mutation. Genes that are typically expressed at high levels in the relevant tumor type are more likely to be presented.

Allele-noninteracting information can also include the frequency of the mutation in all tumors, or in tumors of the same type, or in tumors from individuals with at least one shared MHC allele, or in tumors of the same type in individuals with at least one shared MHC allele.

In the case of a mutated tumor-specific peptide, the list of features used to predict a probability of presentation may also include the annotation of the mutation (e.g., missense, read-through, frameshift, fusion, etc.) or whether the mutation is predicted to result in nonsense-mediated decay (NMD). For example, peptides from protein segments that are not translated in tumor cells due to homozygous early-stop mutations can be assigned a probability of presentation of zero. NMD results in decreased mRNA translation, which decreases the probability of presentation.

VIII.C. Presentation Identification System

FIG. 3 is a high-level block diagram illustrating the computer logic components of the presentation identification system 160, according to one embodiment. In this example embodiment, the presentation identification system 160 includes a data management module 312, an encoding module 314, a training module 316, and a prediction module 320. The presentation identification system 160 is also comprised of a training data store 170 and a presentation models store 175. Some embodiments of the model management system 160 have different modules than those described here. Similarly, the functions can be distributed among the modules in a different manner than is described here.

VIII.C.1. Data Management Module

The data management module 312 generates sets of training data 170 from the presentation information 165. Each set of training data contains a plurality of data instances, in which each data instance i contains a set of independent variables zⁱthat include at least a presented or non-presented peptide sequence pⁱ, one or more associated MHC alleles aⁱassociated with the peptide sequence pⁱ, and a dependent variable yⁱthat represents information that the presentation identification system 160 is interested in predicting for new values of independent variables.

In one particular implementation referred throughout the remainder of the specification, the dependent variable yⁱis a binary label indicating whether peptide pⁱwas presented by the one or more associated MHC alleles aⁱ. However, it is appreciated that in other implementations, the dependent variable yⁱcan represent any other kind of information that the presentation identification system 160 is interested in predicting dependent on the independent variables zⁱ. For example, in another implementation, the dependent variable yⁱmay also be a numerical value indicating the mass spectrometry ion current identified for the data instance.

The peptide sequence pⁱfor data instance i is a sequence of k_iamino acids, in which k_imay vary between data instances i within a range. For example, that range may be 8-15 for MHC class I or 6-30 for MHC class II. In one specific implementation of system 160, all peptide sequences pⁱin a training data set may have the same length, e.g. 9. The number of amino acids in a peptide sequence may vary depending on the type of MHC alleles (e.g., MHC alleles in humans, etc.). The MHC alleles aⁱfor data instance i indicate which MHC alleles were present in association with the corresponding peptide sequence pⁱ.

The data management module 312 may also include additional allele-interacting variables, such as binding affinity b and stability s predictions in conjunction with the peptide sequences pⁱand associated MHC alleles aⁱcontained in the training data 170. For example, the training data 170 may contain binding affinity predictions b between a peptide pⁱand each of the associated MHC molecules indicated in aⁱ. As another example, the training data 170 may contain stability predictions s for each of the MHC alleles indicated in a.

The data management module 312 may also include allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ, such as C-terminal flanking sequences and mRNA quantification measurements in conjunction with the peptide sequences p.

The data management module 312 also identifies peptide sequences that are not presented by MHC alleles to generate the training data 170. Generally, this involves identifying the “longer” sequences of source protein that include presented peptide sequences prior to presentation. When the presentation information contains engineered cell lines, the data management module 312 identifies a series of peptide sequences in the synthetic protein to which the cells were exposed to that were not presented on MHC alleles of the cells. When the presentation information contains tissue samples, the data management module 312 identifies source proteins from which presented peptide sequences originated from, and identifies a series of peptide sequences in the source protein that were not presented on MHC alleles of the tissue sample cells.

The data management module 312 may also artificially generate peptides with random sequences of amino acids and identify the generated sequences as peptides not presented on MHC alleles. This can be accomplished by randomly generating peptide sequences allows the data management module 312 to easily generate large amounts of synthetic data for peptides not presented on MHC alleles. Since in reality, a small percentage of peptide sequences are presented by MHC alleles, the synthetically generated peptide sequences are highly likely not to have been presented by MHC alleles even if they were included in proteins processed by cells.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example set of training data 170A, according to one embodiment. Specifically, the first 3 data instances in the training data 170A indicate peptide presentation information from a single-allele cell line involving the allele HLA-C*01:03 and 3 peptide sequences QCEIOWAREFLKEIGJ (SEQ ID NO: 10), FIEUHFWI (SEQ ID NO: 11), and FEWRHRJTRUJR (SEQ ID NO: 12). The fourth data instance in the training data 170A indicates peptide information from a multiple-allele cell line involving the alleles HLA-B*07:02, HLA-C*01:03, HLA-A*01:01 and a peptide sequence QIEJOEIJE (SEQ ID NO: 13). The first data instance indicates that peptide sequence QCEIOWARE (SEQ ID NO: 14) was not presented by the allele HLA-DRB3:01:01. As discussed in the prior two paragraphs, the negatively-labeled peptide sequences may be randomly generated by the data management module 312 or identified from source protein of presented peptides. The training data 170A also includes a binding affinity prediction of 1000 nM and a stability prediction of a half-life of 1 h for the peptide sequence-allele pair. The training data 170A also includes allele-noninteracting variables, such as the C-terminal flanking sequence of the peptide FJELFISBOSJFIE (SEQ ID NO: 15), and a mRNA quantification measurement of 10²TPM. The fourth data instance indicates that peptide sequence QIEJOEIJE (SEQ ID NO: 13) was presented by one of the alleles HLA-B*07:02, HLA-C*01:03, or HLA-A*01:01. The training data 170A also includes binding affinity predictions and stability predictions for each of the alleles, as well as the C-terminal flanking sequence of the peptide and the mRNA quantification measurement for the peptide.

VIII.C.2. Encoding Module

The encoding module 314 encodes information contained in the training data 170 into a numerical representation that can be used to generate the one or more presentation models. In one implementation, the encoding module 314 one-hot encodes sequences (e.g., peptide sequences or C-terminal flanking sequences) over a predetermined 20-letter amino acid alphabet. Specifically, a peptide sequence pⁱwith k_iamino acids is represented as a row vector of 20·k_ielements, where a single element among pⁱ_20(j−1)+1, pⁱ_20(j−1)+2, . . . , pⁱ_20·jthat corresponds to the alphabet of the amino acid at the j-th position of the peptide sequence has a value of 1. Otherwise, the remaining elements have a value of 0. As an example, for a given alphabet {A, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, Y}, the peptide sequence EAF of 3 amino acids for data instance i may be represented by the row vector of 60 elements pⁱ=[0 0 0 10 000000000000000 100000000000 000000000000 1000000000000000]. The C-terminal flanking sequence cⁱcan be similarly encoded as described above, as well as the protein sequence d_hfor MHC alleles, and other sequence data in the presentation information.

When the training data 170 contains sequences of differing lengths of amino acids, the encoding module 314 may further encode the peptides into equal-length vectors by adding a PAD character to extend the predetermined alphabet. For example, this may be performed by left-padding the peptide sequences with the PAD character until the length of the peptide sequence reaches the peptide sequence with the greatest length in the training data 170. Thus, when the peptide sequence with the greatest length has k_maxamino acids, the encoding module 314 numerically represents each sequence as a row vector of (20+1)·k_maxelements. As an example, for the extended alphabet {PAD, A, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, Y} and a maximum amino acid length of k_nax=5, the same example peptide sequence EAF of 3 amino acids may be represented by the row vector of 105 elements pⁱ=[1 00000000000000000000 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0000000100000000000000000100000000000000000000000 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]. The C-terminal flanking sequence cⁱor other sequence data can be similarly encoded as described above. Thus, each independent variable or column in the peptide sequence pⁱor cⁱrepresents presence of a particular amino acid at a particular position of the sequence.

Although the above method of encoding sequence data was described in reference to sequences having amino acid sequences, the method can similarly be extended to other types of sequence data, such as DNA or RNA sequence data, and the like.

The encoding module 314 also encodes the one or more MHC alleles aⁱfor data instance i as a row vector of m elements, in which each element h=1, 2, . . . , m corresponds to a unique identified MHC allele. The elements corresponding to the MHC alleles identified for the data instance i have a value of 1. Otherwise, the remaining elements have a value of 0. As an example, the alleles HLA-B*07:02 and HLA-DRB1*10:01 for a data instance i corresponding to a multiple-allele cell line among m=4 unique identified MHC allele types {HLA-A*01:01, HLA-C*01:08, HLA-B*07:02, HLA-DRB1*10:01} may be represented by the row vector of 4 elements aⁱ=[0 0 1 1], in which a₃ⁱ=1 and a₄ⁱ=1. Although the example is described herein with 4 identified MHC allele types, the number of MHC allele types can be hundreds or thousands in practice. As previously discussed, each data instance i typically contains at most 6 different MHC allele types in association with the peptide sequence p_i.

The encoding module 314 also encodes the label y_ifor each data instance i as a binary variable having values from the set of {0, 1}, in which a value of 1 indicates that peptide xⁱwas presented by one of the associated MHC alleles aⁱ, and a value of 0 indicates that peptide xⁱwas not presented by any of the associated MHC alleles aⁱ. When the dependent variable y_irepresents the mass spectrometry ion current, the encoding module 314 may additionally scale the values using various functions, such as the log function having a range of (−∞, ∞) for ion current values between [0, ∞).

The encoding module 314 may represent a pair of allele-interacting variables x_hⁱfor peptide p_iand an associated MHC allele h as a row vector in which numerical representations of allele-interacting variables are concatenated one after the other. For example, the encoding module 314 may represent x_hⁱas a row vector equal to [pⁱ], [pⁱb_hⁱ], [pⁱs_hⁱ], or [pⁱb_hⁱs_hⁱ], where b_hⁱis the binding affinity prediction for peptide p_iand associated MHC allele h, and similarly for s_hⁱfor stability. Alternatively, one or more combination of allele-interacting variables may be stored individually (e.g., as individual vectors or matrices).

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents binding affinity information by incorporating measured or predicted values for binding affinity in the allele-interacting variables x_hⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents binding stability information by incorporating measured or predicted values for binding stability in the allele-interacting variables x_hⁱ,

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents binding on-rate information by incorporating measured or predicted values for binding on-rate in the allele-interacting variables x_hⁱ.

In one instance, for peptides presented by class I MHC molecules, the encoding module 314 represents peptide length as a vector T_k=[ custom-character (L_k=8)(L_k=9)(L_k=10)(L_k=11) (L_k=12)(L_k=13)(L_k=14)(L_k=15)] where is the indicator function, and L_kdenotes the length of peptide p_k. The vector T_kcan be included in the allele-interacting variables x_hⁱ. In another instance, for peptides presented by class II MHC molecules, the encoding module 314 represents peptide length as a vector T_k=[ custom-character (L_k=6) (L_k=7) (L_k=8) (L_k=9) (L_k=10) (L_k=11) (L_k=12) (L_k=13) (L_k=14) (L_k=15) (L_k=16) (L_k=17) (L_k=18) (L_k=19) (L_k=20) (L_k=21) (L_k=22) (L_k=23) (L_k=24) (L_k=25) (L_k=26) (L_k=27) (L_k=28) (L_k=29) (L_k=30)] where is the indicator function, and L_kdenotes the length of peptide p_k. The vector T_kcan be included in the allele-interacting variables x_hⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents RNA expression information of MHC alleles by incorporating RNA-seq based expression levels of MHC alleles in the allele-interacting variables x_hⁱ.

Similarly, the encoding module 314 may represent the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱas a row vector in which numerical representations of allele-noninteracting variables are concatenated one after the other. For example, wⁱmay be a row vector equal to [cⁱ] or [cⁱmⁱwⁱ] in which wⁱis a row vector representing any other allele-noninteracting variables in addition to the C-terminal flanking sequence of peptide pⁱand the mRNA quantification measurement mⁱassociated with the peptide. Alternatively, one or more combination of allele-noninteracting variables may be stored individually (e.g., as individual vectors or matrices).

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents turnover rate of source protein for a peptide sequence by incorporating the turnover rate or half-life in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents length of source protein or isoform by incorporating the protein length in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents activation of immunoproteasome by incorporating the mean expression of the immunoproteasome-specific proteasome subunits including the β1_i, β2_i, β5_isubunits in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents the RNA-seq abundance of the source protein of the peptide or gene or transcript of a peptide (quantified in units of FPKM, TPM by techniques such as RSEM) can be incorporating the abundance of the source protein in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents the probability that the transcript of origin of a peptide will undergo nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) as estimated by the model in, for example, Rivas et. al. Science, 2015 by incorporating this probability in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents the activation status of a gene module or pathway assessed via RNA-seq by, for example, quantifying expression of the genes in the pathway in units of TPM using e.g., RSEM for each of the genes in the pathway then computing a summary statistics, e.g., the mean, across genes in the pathway. The mean can be incorporated in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents the copy number of the source gene by incorporating the copy number in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents the TAP binding affinity by including the measured or predicted TAP binding affinity (e.g., in nanomolar units) in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents TAP expression levels by including TAP expression levels measured by RNA-seq (and quantified in units of TPM by e.g., RSEM) in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents tumor mutations as a vector of indicator variables (i.e., d^k=1 if peptide p^kcomes from a sample with a KRAS G12D mutation and 0 otherwise) in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents germline polymorphisms in antigen presentation genes as a vector of indicator variables (i.e., d^k=1 if peptide p^kcomes from a sample with a specific germline polymorphism in the TAP). These indicator variables can be included in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents tumor type as a length-one one-hot encoded vector over the alphabet of tumor types (e.g., NSCLC, melanoma, colorectal cancer, etc). These one-hot-encoded variables can be included in the allele-noninteracting variables w.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents MHC allele suffixes by treating 4-digit HLA alleles with different suffixes. For example, HLA-A*24:09N is considered a different allele from HLA-A*24:09 for the purpose of the model. Alternatively, the probability of presentation by an N-suffixed MHC allele can be set to zero for all peptides, because HLA alleles ending in the N suffix are not expressed.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents tumor subtype as a length-one one-hot encoded vector over the alphabet of tumor subtypes (e.g., lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma, etc). These onehot-encoded variables can be included in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents smoking history as a binary indicator variable (d^k=1 if the patient has a smoking history, and 0 otherwise), that can be included in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ. Alternatively, smoking history can be encoded as a length-one one-hot-enocded variable over an alphabet of smoking severity. For example, smoking status can be rated on a 1-5 scale, where 1 indicates nonsmokers, and 5 indicates current heavy smokers. Because smoking history is primarily relevant to lung tumors, when training a model on multiple tumor types, this variable can also be defined to be equal to 1 if the patient has a history of smoking and the tumor type is lung tumors and zero otherwise.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents sunburn history as a binary indicator variable (d^k=1 if the patient has a history of severe sunburn, and 0 otherwise), which can be included in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ. Because severe sunburn is primarily relevant to melanomas, when training a model on multiple tumor types, this variable can also be defined to be equal to 1 if the patient has a history of severe sunburn and the tumor type is melanoma and zero otherwise.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents distribution of expression levels of a particular gene or transcript for each gene or transcript in the human genome as summary statistics (e,g., mean, median) of distribution of expression levels by using reference databases such as TCGA. Specifically, for a peptide p^kin a sample with tumor type melanoma, we can include not only the measured gene or transcript expression level of the gene or transcript of origin of peptide p^kin the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ, but also the mean and/or median gene or transcript expression of the gene or transcript of origin of peptide p^kin melanomas as measured by TCGA.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents mutation type as a length-one one-hot-encoded variable over the alphabet of mutation types (e.g., missense, frameshift, NMD-inducing, etc). These onehot-encoded variables can be included in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents protein-level features of protein as the value of the annotation (e.g., 5′ UTR length) of the source protein in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ. In another instance, the encoding module 314 represents residue-level annotations of the source protein for peptide pⁱby including an indicator variable, that is equal to 1 if peptide pⁱoverlaps with a helix motif and 0 otherwise, or that is equal to 1 if peptide pⁱis completely contained with within a helix motif in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ. In another instance, a feature representing proportion of residues in peptide pⁱthat are contained within a helix motif annotation can be included in the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱ.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents type of proteins or isoforms in the human proteome as an indicator vector o^kthat has a length equal to the number of proteins or isoforms in the human proteome, and the corresponding element o^k_iis 1 if peptide p^kcomes from protein i and 0 otherwise.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents the source gene G=gene(pⁱ) of peptide pⁱas a categorical variable with L possible categories, where L denotes the upper limit of the number of indexed source genes 1, 2, . . . , L.

In one instance, the encoding module 314 represents the tissue type, cell type, tumor type, or tumor histology type T=tissue(pⁱ) of peptide pⁱas a categorical variable with M possible categories, where M denotes the upper limit of the number of indexed types 1, 2, . . . , M. Types of tissue can include, for example, lung tissue, cardiac tissue, intestine tissue, nerve tissue, and the like. Types of cells can include dendritic cells, macrophages, CD4 T cells, and the like. Types of tumors can include lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the like.

The encoding module 314 may also represent the overall set of variables zⁱfor peptide pⁱand an associated MHC allele h as a row vector in which numerical representations of the allele-interacting variables xⁱand the allele-noninteracting variables wⁱare concatenated one after the other. For example, the encoding module 314 may represent z_hⁱas a row vector equal to [x_hⁱwⁱ] or [w_ix_hⁱ].

IX. Training Module

The training module 316 constructs one or more presentation models that generate likelihoods of whether peptide sequences will be presented by MHC alleles associated with the peptide sequences. Specifically, given a peptide sequence p^kand a set of MHC alleles a^kassociated with the peptide sequence p^k, each presentation model generates an estimate u_kindicating a likelihood that the peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by one or more of the associated MHC alleles a^k.

IX.A. Overview

The training module 316 constructs the one more presentation models based on the training data sets stored in store 170 generated from the presentation information stored in 165. Generally, regardless of the specific type of presentation model, all of the presentation models capture the dependence between independent variables and dependent variables in the training data 170 such that a loss function is minimized. Specifically, the loss function custom-character (y_i∈S; u_i∈S, θ) represents discrepancies between values of dependent variables y_i∈Sfor one or more data instances S in the training data 170 and the estimated likelihoods u_i∈Sfor the data instances S generated by the presentation model. In one particular implementation referred throughout the remainder of the specification, the loss function (y_i∈S, u_i∈S, θ) is the negative log likelihood function given by equation (1a) as follows:

$\begin{matrix} ℓ (y_{i \in S}, u_{i \in S}; θ) = \sum_{i \in S} (y_{i} \log u_{i} + (1 - y_{i}) \log (1 - u_{i})) . & (1 a) \end{matrix}$

However, in practice, another loss function may be used. For example, when predictions are made for the mass spectrometry ion current, the loss function is the mean squared loss given by equation 1b as follows:

$\begin{matrix} ℓ (y_{i \in S}, u_{i \in S}; θ) = \sum_{i \in S} ({ y_{i} - u_{i} }_{2}^{2}) . & (1 b) \end{matrix}$

The presentation model may be a parametric model in which one or more parameters θ mathematically specify the dependence between the independent variables and dependent variables. Typically, various parameters of parametric-type presentation models that minimize the loss function (y_i∈s, u_i∈s, θ) are determined through gradient-based numerical optimization algorithms, such as batch gradient algorithms, stochastic gradient algorithms, and the like. Alternatively, the presentation model may be a non-parametric model in which the model structure is determined from the training data 170 and is not strictly based on a fixed set of parameters.

IX.B. Per-Allele Models

The training module 316 may construct the presentation models to predict presentation likelihoods of peptides on a per-allele basis. In this case, the training module 316 may train the presentation models based on data instances S in the training data 170 generated from cells expressing single MHC alleles.

In one implementation, the training module 316 models the estimated presentation likelihood u_kfor peptide p^kfor a specific allele h by:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k}^{h} = \Pr (p^{k} presented; MHC allele h) = f (g_{h} (x_{h}^{k}; θ_{h})), & (2) \end{matrix}$

where peptide sequence x_h^kdenotes the encoded allele-interacting variables for peptide p^kand corresponding MHC allele h, ƒ(⋅) is any function, and is herein throughout is referred to as a transformation function for convenience of description. Further, g_h(⋅) is any function, is herein throughout referred to as a dependency function for convenience of description, and generates dependency scores for the allele-interacting variables x_h^kbased on a set of parameters θ_hdetermined for MHC allele h. The values for the set of parameters θ_hfor each MHC allele h can be determined by minimizing the loss function with respect to θ_h, where i is each instance in the subset S of training data 170 generated from cells expressing the single MHC allele h.

The output of the dependency function g_h(x_h^k; θ_h) represents a dependency score for the MHC allele h indicating whether the MHC allele h will present the corresponding neoantigen based on at least the allele interacting features x_h^k, and in particular, based on positions of amino acids of the peptide sequence of peptide p^k. For example, the dependency score for the MHC allele h may have a high value if the MHC allele h is likely to present the peptide p^k, and may have a low value if presentation is not likely. The transformation function ƒ(⋅) transforms the input, and more specifically, transforms the dependency score generated by g_h(x_h^k; θ_h) in this case, to an appropriate value to indicate the likelihood that the peptide p^kwill be presented by an MHC allele.

In one particular implementation referred throughout the remainder of the specification, ƒ(⋅) is a function having the range within [0, 1] for an appropriate domain range. In one example, ƒ(⋅) is the expit function given by:

$\begin{matrix} f (z) = \frac{\exp (z)}{1 + \exp (z)} . & (4) \end{matrix}$

As another example, ƒ(⋅) can also be the hyperbolic tangent function given by:

$\begin{matrix} f (z) = \tanh (z) & (5) \end{matrix}$

when the values for the domain z is equal to or greater than 0. Alternatively, when predictions are made for the mass spectrometry ion current that have values outside the range [0, 1], ƒ(⋅) can be any function such as the identity function, the exponential function, the log function, and the like.

Thus, the per-allele likelihood that a peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by a MHC allele h can be generated by applying the dependency function g_h(⋅) for the MHC allele h to the encoded version of the peptide sequence p^kto generate the corresponding dependency score. The dependency score may be transformed by the transformation function ƒ(⋅) to generate a per-allele likelihood that the peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by the MHC allele h.

IX.B.1 Dependency Functions for Allele Interacting Variables

In one particular implementation referred throughout the specification, the dependency function g_h(⋅) is an affine function given by:

$\begin{matrix} g_{h} (x_{h}^{i}; θ_{h}) = x_{h}^{i} \cdot θ_{h} . & (6) \end{matrix}$

that linearly combines each allele-interacting variable in x_h^kwith a corresponding parameter in the set of parameters θ_hdetermined for the associated MHC allele h.

In another particular implementation referred throughout the specification, the dependency function g_h(⋅) is a network function given by:

$\begin{matrix} g_{h} (x_{h}^{i}; θ_{h}) = N N_{h} (x_{h}^{i}; θ_{h}) . & (7) \end{matrix}$

represented by a network model NN_h(⋅) having a series of nodes arranged in one or more layers. A node may be connected to other nodes through connections each having an associated parameter in the set of parameters θ_h. A value at one particular node may be represented as a sum of the values of nodes connected to the particular node weighted by the associated parameter mapped by an activation function associated with the particular node. In contrast to the affine function, network models are advantageous because the presentation model can incorporate non-linearity and process data having different lengths of amino acid sequences. Specifically, through non-linear modeling, network models can capture interaction between amino acids at different positions in a peptide sequence and how this interaction affects peptide presentation.

In general, network models NN_h(⋅) may be structured as feed-forward networks, such as artificial neural networks (ANN), convolutional neural networks (CNN), deep neural networks (DNN), and/or recurrent networks, such as long short-term memory networks (LSTM), bi-directional recurrent networks, deep bi-directional recurrent networks, and the like.

In one instance referred throughout the remainder of the specification, each MHC allele in h=1, 2, . . . , m is associated with a separate network model, and NN_h(⋅) denotes the output(s) from a network model associated with MHC allele h.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example network model NN₃(⋅) in association with an arbitrary MHC allele h=3. As shown in FIG. 5, the network model NN₃(⋅) for MHC allele h=3 includes three input nodes at layer 1=1, four nodes at layer 1=2, two nodes at layer 1=3, and one output node at layer 1=4. The network model NN₃(⋅) is associated with a set of ten parameters θ₃(1), θ₃(2), . . . , θ₃(10). The network model NN₃(⋅) receives input values (individual data instances including encoded polypeptide sequence data and any other training data used) for three allele-interacting variables x₃^k(1), x₃^k(2), and x₃^k(3) for MHC allele h=3 and outputs the value NN₃(x₃^k). The network function may also include one or more network models each taking different allele interacting variables as input.

In another instance, the identified MHC alleles h=1, 2, . . . , m are associated with a single network model NN_H(⋅), and NN_h(⋅) denotes one or more outputs of the single network model associated with MHC allele h. In such an instance, the set of parameters θ_hmay correspond to a set of parameters for the single network model, and thus, the set of parameters θ_hmay be shared by all MHC alleles.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example network model NN_H(⋅) shared by MHC alleles h=1, 2, . . . , m. As shown in FIG. 6A, the network model NN_H(⋅) includes m output nodes each corresponding to an MHC allele. The network model NN₃(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₃^kfor MHC allele h=3 and outputs m values including the value NN₃(x₃^k) corresponding to the MHC allele h=3.

In yet another instance, the single network model NN_H(⋅) may be a network model that outputs a dependency score given the allele interacting variables x_h^kand the encoded protein sequence d_hof an MHC allele h. In such an instance, the set of parameters θ_hmay again correspond to a set of parameters for the single network model, and thus, the set of parameters θ_hmay be shared by all MHC alleles. Thus, in such an instance, NN_h(⋅) may denote the output of the single network model NN_H(⋅) given inputs [x_h^kd_h] to the single network model. Such a network model is advantageous because peptide presentation probabilities for MHC alleles that were unknown in the training data can be predicted just by identification of their protein sequence.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example network model NN_H(⋅) shared by MHC alleles. As shown in FIG. 6B, the network model NN_H(⋅) receives the allele interacting variables and protein sequence of MHC allele h=3 as input, and outputs a dependency score NN₃(x₃^k) corresponding to the MHC allele h=3.

In yet another instance, the dependency function g_h(⋅) can be expressed as:

$g_{h} (x_{h}^{k}; θ_{h}) = g_{h}^{'} (x_{h}^{k}; θ_{h}^{'}) + θ_{h}^{0}$

where g′_h(x_h^k; θ′_h) is the affine function with a set of parameters θ′_h, the network function, or the like, with a bias parameter θ_h⁰in the set of parameters for allele interacting variables for the MHC allele that represents a baseline probability of presentation for the MHC allele h.

In another implementation, the bias parameter θ_h⁰may be shared according to the gene family of the MHC allele h. That is, the bias parameter θ_h⁰for MHC allele h may be equal to θ_gene(h)⁰, where gene(h) is the gene family of MHC allele h. For example, class I MHC alleles HLA-A*02:01, HLA-A*02:02, and HLA-A*02:03 may be assigned to the gene family of “HLA-A,” and the bias parameter θ_h⁰for each of these MHC alleles may be shared. As another example, class II MHC alleles HLA-DRB1:10:01, HLA-DRB1:11:01, and HLA-DRB3:01:01 may be assigned to the gene family of “HLA-DRB,” and the bias parameter θ_h⁰for each of these MHC alleles may be shared.

Returning to equation (2), as an example, the likelihood that peptide p^kwill be presented by MHC allele h=3, among m=4 different identified MHC alleles using the affine dependency function g_h(⋅), can be generated by:

$u_{k}^{3} = f (x_{3}^{k} \cdot θ_{3}),$

where x₃^kare the identified allele-interacting variables for MHC allele h=3, and θ₃are the set of parameters determined for MHC allele h=3 through loss function minimization.

As another example, the likelihood that peptide p^kwill be presented by MHC allele h=3, among m=4 different identified MHC alleles using separate network transformation functions g_h(⋅), can be generated by:

$u_{k}^{3} = f ({NN}_{3} (x_{3}^{k}; θ_{3})),$

where x₃^kare the identified allele-interacting variables for MHC allele h=3, and θ₃are the set of parameters determined for the network model NN₃(⋅) associated with MHC allele h=3.

FIG. 7 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for peptide p^kin association with MHC allele h=3 using an example network model NN₃(⋅). As shown in FIG. 7, the network model NN₃(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₃^kfor MHC allele h=3 and generates the output NN₃(x₃^k). The output is mapped by function ƒ(⋅) to generate the estimated presentation likelihood u_k.

IX.B.2. Per-Allele with Allele-Noninteracting Variables

In one implementation, the training module 316 incorporates allele-noninteracting variables and models the estimated presentation likelihood u_kfor peptide p^kby:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k}^{h} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = f (g_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) + g_{h} (x_{h}^{i}; θ_{h})), & (8) \end{matrix}$

where w^kdenotes the encoded allele-noninteracting variables for peptide p^k, g_w(⋅) is a function for the allele-noninteracting variables w^kbased on a set of parameters θ_wdetermined for the allele-noninteracting variables. Specifically, the values for the set of parameters θ_hfor each MHC allele h and the set of parameters θ_wfor allele-noninteracting variables can be determined by minimizing the loss function with respect to θ_hand θ_w, where i is each instance in the subset S of training data 170 generated from cells expressing single MHC alleles.

The output of the dependency function g_w(w^k; θ_w) represents a dependency score for the allele noninteracting variables indicating whether the peptide p^kwill be presented by one or more MHC alleles based on the impact of allele noninteracting variables. For example, the dependency score for the allele noninteracting variables may have a high value if the peptide p^kis associated with a C-terminal flanking sequence that is known to positively impact presentation of the peptide p^k, and may have a low value if the peptide p^kis associated with a C-terminal flanking sequence that is known to negatively impact presentation of the peptide p^k.

According to equation (8), the per-allele likelihood that a peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by a MHC allele h can be generated by applying the function g_h(⋅) for the MHC allele h to the encoded version of the peptide sequence p^kto generate the corresponding dependency score for allele interacting variables. The function g_w(⋅) for the allele noninteracting variables are also applied to the encoded version of the allele noninteracting variables to generate the dependency score for the allele noninteracting variables. Both scores are combined, and the combined score is transformed by the transformation function ƒ(⋅) to generate a per-allele likelihood that the peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by the MHC allele h.

Alternatively, the training module 316 may include allele-noninteracting variables w^kin the prediction by adding the allele-noninteracting variables w^kto the allele-interacting variables x_h^kin equation (2). Thus, the presentation likelihood can be given by:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k}^{h} = \Pr (p^{k} presented; allele h) = f (g_{h} ([x_{h}^{k} w^{k}]; θ_{h})) . & (9) \end{matrix}$

IX.B.3 Dependency Functions for Allele-Noninteracting Variables

Similarly to the dependency function g_h(⋅) for allele-interacting variables, the dependency function g_w(⋅) for allele noninteracting variables may be an affine function or a network function in which a separate network model is associated with allele-noninteracting variables w^k.

Specifically, the dependency function g_w(⋅) is an affine function given by:

$g_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) = w^{k} \cdot θ_{w} .$

that linearly combines the allele-noninteracting variables in w^kwith a corresponding parameter in the set of parameters θ_w.

The dependency function g_w(⋅) may also be a network function given by:

$g_{h} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) = {NN}_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) .$

represented by a network model NN_w(⋅) having an associated parameter in the set of parameters θ_w. The network function may also include one or more network models each taking different allele noninteracting variables as input.

In another instance, the dependency function g_w(⋅) for the allele-noninteracting variables can be given by:

$\begin{matrix} g_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) = g_{w}^{'} (w^{k}; θ_{w}^{'}) + h (m^{k}; θ_{w}^{m}), & (10) \end{matrix}$

where g′_w(w^k; θ′_w) is the affine function, the network function with the set of allele noninteracting parameters θ′_w, or the like, m^kis the mRNA quantification measurement for peptide p^k, h(⋅) is a function transforming the quantification measurement, and θ_w^mis a parameter in the set of parameters for allele noninteracting variables that is combined with the mRNA quantification measurement to generate a dependency score for the mRNA quantification measurement. In one particular embodiment referred throughout the remainder of the specification, h(⋅) is the log function, however in practice h(⋅) may be any one of a variety of different functions.

In yet another instance, the dependency function g_w(⋅) for the allele-noninteracting variables can be given by:

$\begin{matrix} g_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) = g_{w}^{'} (w^{k}; θ_{w}^{'}) + θ_{w}^{o} \cdot o^{k}, & (11) \end{matrix}$

where g′_w(w^k; θ′_w) is the affine function, the network function with the set of allele noninteracting parameters θ′_w, or the like, o^kis the indicator vector described in Section VII.C.2 representing proteins and isoforms in the human proteome for peptide p^k, and θ_w^ois a set of parameters in the set of parameters for allele noninteracting variables that is combined with the indicator vector. In one variation, when the dimensionality of o^kand the set of parameters θ_w^oare significantly high, a parameter regularization term, such as λ·∥θ_w^o∥, where ∥˜∥ represents L1 norm, L2 norm, a combination, or the like, can be added to the loss function when determining the value of the parameters. The optimal value of the hyperparameter λ can be determined through appropriate methods.

In yet another instance, the dependency function g_w(⋅) for the allele-noninteracting variables can be given by:

$\begin{matrix} g_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) = g_{w}^{'} (w^{k}; θ_{w}^{'}) + \sum_{l = 1}^{L} (gene (p^{k} = l)) \cdot θ_{w}^{l}, & (12) \end{matrix}$

where g′_w(w^k; θ′_w) is the affine function, the network function with the set of allele noninteracting parameters θ′_w, or the like, custom-character (gene(p^k=L)) is the indicator function that equals to 1 if peptide p^kis from source gene I as described above in reference to allele noninteracting variables, and θ_w^lis a parameter indicating “antigenicity” of source gene l. In one variation, when L is significantly high, and thus, the number of parameters θ_w^{l=1, 2, . . . , L}are significantly high, a parameter regularization term, such as λ·∥θ_w^l∥, where ∥˜∥ represents L1 norm, L2 norm, a combination, or the like, can be added to the loss function when determining the value of the parameters. The optimal value of the hyperparameter k can be determined through appropriate methods.

In yet another instance, the dependency function g_w(⋅) for the allele-noninteracting variables can be given by:

$\begin{matrix} g_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) = g_{w}^{'} (w^{k}; θ_{w}^{'}) + \sum_{m = 1}^{M} \sum_{l = 1}^{L} (gene (p^{k}) = l, tissue (p^{k}) = m) \cdot θ_{w}^{lm}, & (12 b) \end{matrix}$

where g′_w(w^k; θ′_w) is the affine function, the network function with the set of allele noninteracting parameters θ′_w, or the like, custom-character (gene(p^k)=l, tissue(p^k)=m) is the indicator function that equals to 1 if peptide p^kis from source gene l and if peptide p^kis from tissue type m as described above in reference to allele noninteracting variables, and θ_w^lmis a parameter indicating antigenicity of the combination of source gene I and tissue type m. Specifically, the antigenicity of gene l for tissue type m may denote the residual propensity for cells of tissue type m to present peptides from gene I after controlling for RNA expression and peptide sequence context.

In one variation, when L or M is significantly high, and thus, the number of parameters θ_w^{lm=1, 2 . . . , LM}are significantly high, a parameter regularization term, such as λ·∥θ_w^lm∥ where ∥⋅∥ represents L1 norm, L2 norm, a combination, or the like, can be added to the loss function when determining the value of the parameters. The optimal value of the hyperparameter λ can be determined through appropriate methods. In another variation, a parameter regularization term can be added to the loss function when determining the value of the parameters, such that the coefficients for the same source gene do not significantly differ between tissue types. For example, a penalization term such as:

$λ \cdot \sum_{l = 1}^{L} \sqrt{\sum_{m = 1}^{M} {(θ_{w}^{lm} - \overline{θ_{w}^{l}})}^{2}}$

where θ_w^l is the average antigenicity across tissue types for source gene l, may penalize the standard deviation of antigenicity across different tissue types in the loss function.

In practice, the additional terms of any of equations (10), (11), (12a) and (12b) may be combined to generate the dependency function g_w(⋅) for allele noninteracting variables. For example, the term h(⋅) indicating mRNA quantification measurement in equation (10) and the term indicating source gene antigenicity in equation (12) may be summed together along with any other affine or network function to generate the dependency function for allele noninteracting variables.

Returning to equation (8), as an example, the likelihood that peptide p^kwill be presented by MHC allele h=3, among m=4 different identified MHC alleles using the affine transformation functions g_h(⋅), g_w(⋅), can be generated by:

$u_{k}^{3} = f (w^{k} \cdot θ_{w} + x_{3}^{k} \cdot θ_{3}),$

where w^kare the identified allele-noninteracting variables for peptide p^k, and θ_ware the set of parameters determined for the allele-noninteracting variables.

As another example, the likelihood that peptide p^kwill be presented by MHC allele h=3, among m=4 different identified MHC alleles using the network transformation functions g_h(⋅), g_w(⋅), can be generated by:

$u_{k}^{3} = f ({NN}_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) + {NN}_{3} (x_{3}^{k}; θ_{3}))$

where w^kare the identified allele-interacting variables for peptide p^k, and θ_ware the set of parameters determined for allele-noninteracting variables.

FIG. 8 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for peptide p^kin association with MHC allele h=3 using example network models NN₃(⋅) and NN_w(⋅). As shown in FIG. 8, the network model NN₃(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₃^kfor MHC allele h=3 and generates the output NN₃(x₃^k). The network model NN_w(⋅) receives the allele-noninteracting variables w^kfor peptide p^kand generates the output NN_w(w^k). The outputs are combined and mapped by function ƒ(⋅) to generate the estimated presentation likelihood u_k.

IX.C. Multiple-Allele Models

The training module 316 may also construct the presentation models to predict presentation likelihoods of peptides in a multiple-allele setting where two or more MHC alleles are present. In this case, the training module 316 may train the presentation models based on data instances S in the training data 170 generated from cells expressing single MHC alleles, cells expressing multiple MHC alleles, or a combination thereof.

IX.C.1. Example 1: Maximum of Per-Allele Models

In one implementation, the training module 316 models the estimated presentation likelihood u_kfor peptide p^kin association with a set of multiple MHC alleles H as a function of the presentation likelihoods u_k^h^∈Hdetermined for each of the MHC alleles h in the set H determined based on cells expressing single-alleles, as described above in conjunction with equations (2)-(11). Specifically, the presentation likelihood u_kcan be any function of u_k^k^∈H. In one implementation, as shown in equation (12), the function is the maximum function, and the presentation likelihood u_kcan be determined as the maximum of the presentation likelihoods for each MHC allele h in the set H.

$u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented; alleles H) = \max (u_{k}^{h \in H}) .$

IX.C.2. Example 2.1: Function-of-Sums Models

In one implementation, the training module 316 models the estimated presentation likelihood u_kfor peptide p^kby:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = f (\sum_{h = 1}^{m} a_{h}^{k} \cdot g_{h} (x_{h}^{k}; θ_{h})), & (13) \end{matrix}$

where elements a_h^kare 1 for the multiple MHC alleles H associated with peptide sequence p^kand x_h^kdenotes the encoded allele-interacting variables for peptide p^kand the corresponding MHC alleles. The values for the set of parameters θh for each MHC allele h can be determined by minimizing the loss function with respect to θ_h, where i is each instance in the subset S of training data 170 generated from cells expressing single MHC alleles and/or cells expressing multiple MHC alleles. The dependency function g_hmay be in the form of any of the dependency functions g_hintroduced above in sections VIII.B.1.

According to equation (13), the presentation likelihood that a peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by one or more MHC alleles h can be generated by applying the dependency function g_h(⋅) to the encoded version of the peptide sequence p^kfor each of the MHC alleles H to generate the corresponding score for the allele interacting variables. The scores for each MHC allele h are combined, and transformed by the transformation function ƒ(⋅) to generate the presentation likelihood that peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by the set of MHC alleles H.

The presentation model of equation (13) is different from the per-allele model of equation (2), in that the number of associated alleles for each peptide p^kcan be greater than 1. In other words, more than one element in a_h^kcan have values of 1 for the multiple MHC alleles H associated with peptide sequence p^k.

As an example, the likelihood that peptide p^kwill be presented by MHC alleles h=2, h=3, among m=4 different identified MHC alleles using the affine transformation functions g_h(⋅), can be generated by:

$u_{k} = f (x_{2}^{k} \cdot θ_{2} + x_{3}^{k} \cdot θ_{3}),$

where x₂^k, x₃^kare the identified allele-interacting variables for MHC alleles h=2, h=3, and θ₂, θ₃are the set of parameters determined for MHC alleles h=2, h=3.

As another example, the likelihood that peptide p^kwill be presented by MHC alleles h=2, h=3, among m=4 different identified MHC alleles using the network transformation functions g_h(⋅), g_w(⋅), can be generated by:

$u_{k} = f (N N_{2} (x_{2}^{k}; θ_{2}) + N N_{3} (x_{3}^{k}; θ_{3})),$

where NN₂(⋅), NN₃(⋅) are the identified network models for MHC alleles h=2, h=3, and θ₂, θ₃are the set of parameters determined for MHC alleles h=2, h=3.

FIG. 9 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for peptide p^kin association with MHC alleles h=2, h=3 using example network models NN₂(⋅) and NN₃(⋅). As shown in FIG. 9, the network model NN₂(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₂^kfor MHC allele h=2 and generates the output NN₂(x₂^k) and the network model NN₃(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₃^kfor MHC allele h=3 and generates the output NN₃(x₃^k). The outputs are combined and mapped by function ƒ(⋅) to generate the estimated presentation likelihood u_k.

IX.C.3. Example 2.2: Function-of-Sums Models with Allele-Noninteracting Variables

In one implementation, the training module 316 incorporates allele-noninteracting variables and models the estimated presentation likelihood u_kfor peptide p^kby:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = f (g_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) + \sum_{h = 1}^{m} a_{h}^{k} \cdot g_{h} (x_{h}^{k}; θ_{h})), & (14) \end{matrix}$

where w^kdenotes the encoded allele-noninteracting variables for peptide p^k. Specifically, the values for the set of parameters θ_hfor each MHC allele h and the set of parameters θ_wfor allele-noninteracting variables can be determined by minimizing the loss function with respect to θ_hand θ_w, where i is each instance in the subset S of training data 170 generated from cells expressing single MHC alleles and/or cells expressing multiple MHC alleles. The dependency function g_wmay be in the form of any of the dependency functions g_wintroduced above in sections VIII.B.3.

Thus, according to equation (14), the presentation likelihood that a peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by one or more MHC alleles H can be generated by applying the function g_h(⋅) to the encoded version of the peptide sequence p^kfor each of the MHC alleles H to generate the corresponding dependency score for allele interacting variables for each MHC allele h. The function g_w(⋅) for the allele noninteracting variables is also applied to the encoded version of the allele noninteracting variables to generate the dependency score for the allele noninteracting variables. The scores are combined, and the combined score is transformed by the transformation function ƒ(⋅) to generate the presentation likelihood that peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by the MHC alleles H.

In the presentation model of equation (14), the number of associated alleles for each peptide p^kcan be greater than 1. In other words, more than one element in a_h^kcan have values of 1 for the multiple MHC alleles H associated with peptide sequence p^k.

$u_{k} = f (w^{k} \cdot θ_{w} + x_{2}^{k} \cdot θ_{2} + x_{3}^{k} \cdot θ_{3}),$

where w^kare the identified allele-noninteracting variables for peptide p^k, and θ_ware the set of parameters determined for the allele-noninteracting variables.

$u_{k} = f (N N_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) + N N_{2} (x_{2}^{k}; θ_{2}) + N N_{3} (x_{3}^{k}; θ_{3}))$

where w^kare the identified allele-interacting variables for peptide p^k, and θ_ware the set of parameters determined for allele-noninteracting variables.

FIG. 10 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for peptide p^kin association with MHC alleles h=2, h=3 using example network models NN₂(⋅), NN₃(⋅), and NN_w(⋅). As shown in FIG. 10, the network model NN₂(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₂^kfor MHC allele h=2 and generates the output NN₂(x₂^k). The network model NN₃(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₃^kfor MHC allele h=3 and generates the output NN₃(x₃^k). The network model NN_w(⋅) receives the allele-noninteracting variables w^kfor peptide p^kand generates the output NN_w(w^k). The outputs are combined and mapped by function ƒ(⋅) to generate the estimated presentation likelihood u_k.

Alternatively, the training module 316 may include allele-noninteracting variables w^kin the prediction by adding the allele-noninteracting variables w^kto the allele-interacting variables x_h^kin equation (15). Thus, the presentation likelihood can be given by:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = f (\sum_{h = 1}^{m} a_{h}^{k} \cdot g_{h} ([x_{h}^{k} w^{k}]; θ_{h})) . & (15) \end{matrix}$

IX.C.4. Example 3.1: Models Using Implicit Per-Allele Likelihoods

In another implementation, the training module 316 models the estimated presentation likelihood u_kfor peptide p^kby:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = r (s (v = [a_{1}^{k} \cdot u_{k}^{′1} (θ) \dots a_{m}^{k} \cdot u_{k}^{' m} (θ)])), & (16) \end{matrix}$

where elements a_h^kare 1 for the multiple MHC alleles h EH associated with peptide sequence p^k, u′_kh is an implicit per-allele presentation likelihood for MHC allele h, vector v is a vector in which element v_hcorresponds to a_h^k·u′_k^h, s(⋅) is a function mapping the elements of v, and r(⋅) is a clipping function that clips the value of the input into a given range. As described below in more detail, s(⋅) may be the summation function or the second-order function, but it is appreciated that in other embodiments, s(⋅) can be any function such as the maximum function. The values for the set of parameters θ for the implicit per-allele likelihoods can be determined by minimizing the loss function with respect to θ, where i is each instance in the subset S of training data 170 generated from cells expressing single MHC alleles and/or cells expressing multiple MHC alleles.

The presentation likelihood in the presentation model of equation (17) is modeled as a function of implicit per-allele presentation likelihoods u′_k^hthat each correspond to the likelihood peptide p^kwill be presented by an individual MHC allele h. The implicit per-allele likelihood is distinct from the per-allele presentation likelihood of section VIII.B in that the parameters for implicit per-allele likelihoods can be learned from multiple allele settings, in which direct association between a presented peptide and the corresponding MHC allele is unknown, in addition to single-allele settings. Thus, in a multiple-allele setting, the presentation model can estimate not only whether peptide p^kwill be presented by a set of MHC alleles H as a whole, but can also provide individual likelihoods u′_k^h^∈Hthat indicate which MHC allele h most likely presented peptide p^k. An advantage of this is that the presentation model can generate the implicit likelihoods without training data for cells expressing single MHC alleles.

In one particular implementation referred throughout the remainder of the specification, r(⋅) is a function having the range [0, 1]. For example, r(⋅) may be the clip function:

$r (z) = \min (\max (z, 0), 1),$

where the minimum value between z and 1 is chosen as the presentation likelihood u_k. In another implementation, r(⋅) is the hyperbolic tangent function given by:

$r (z) = \tanh (z)$

when the values for the domain z is equal to or greater than 0.

IX.C.5. Example 3.2: Sum-of-Functions Model

In one particular implementation, s(⋅) is a summation function, and the presentation likelihood is given by summing the implicit per-allele presentation likelihoods:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = r (\sum_{h = 1}^{m} a_{h}^{k} \cdot u_{k}^{' h} (θ)) . & (17) \end{matrix}$

In one implementation, the implicit per-allele presentation likelihood for MHC allele h is generated by:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k}^{' h} = f (g_{h} (x_{h}^{k}; θ_{h})), & (18) \end{matrix}$

such that the presentation likelihood is estimated by:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = r (\sum_{h = 1}^{m} a_{h}^{k} \cdot f (g_{h} (x_{h}^{k}; θ_{h}))) . & (19) \end{matrix}$

According to equation (19), the presentation likelihood that a peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by one or more MHC alleles H can be generated by applying the function g_h(⋅) to the encoded version of the peptide sequence p^kfor each of the MHC alleles H to generate the corresponding dependency score for allele interacting variables. Each dependency score is first transformed by the function ƒ(⋅) to generate implicit per-allele presentation likelihoods u′_k^h. The per-allele likelihoods u′_k^hare combined, and the clipping function may be applied to the combined likelihoods to clip the values into a range [0, 1] to generate the presentation likelihood that peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by the set of MHC alleles H. The dependency function g_hmay be in the form of any of the dependency functions g_hintroduced above in sections VIII.B.1.

$u_{k} = r (f (x_{2}^{k} \cdot θ_{2}) + f (x_{3}^{k} \cdot θ_{3})),$

where x₂^k, x₃^kare the identified allele-interacting variables for MHC alleles h=2, h=3, and θ₂, θ₃are the set of parameters determined for MHC alleles h=2, h=3.

$u_{k} = r (f (N N_{2} (x_{2}^{k}; θ_{2})) + f (N N_{3} (x_{3}^{k}; θ_{3}))),$

where NN₂(⋅), NN₃(⋅) are the identified network models for MHC alleles h=2, h=3, and θ₂, θ₃are the set of parameters determined for MHC alleles h=2, h=3.

FIG. 11 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for peptide p^kin association with MHC alleles h=2, h=3 using example network models NN₂(⋅) and NN₃(⋅). As shown in FIG. 9, the network model NN₂(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₂^kfor MHC allele h=2 and generates the output NN₂(x₂^k) and the network model NN₃(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₃^kfor MHC allele h=3 and generates the output NN₃(x₃^k). Each output is mapped by function ƒ(⋅) and combined to generate the estimated presentation likelihood u_k.

In another implementation, when the predictions are made for the log of mass spectrometry ion currents, r(⋅) is the log function and ƒ(⋅) is the exponential function.

IX.C.6. Example 3.3: Sum-of-Functions Models with Allele-Noninteracting Variables

In one implementation, the implicit per-allele presentation likelihood for MHC allele h is generated by:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k}^{' h} = f (g_{h} (x_{h}^{k}; θ_{h}) + g_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w})), & (20) \end{matrix}$

such that the presentation likelihood is generated by:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = r (\sum_{h = 1}^{m} a_{h}^{k} \cdot f (g_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) + g_{h} (x_{h}^{k}; θ_{h}))), & (21) \end{matrix}$

to incorporate the impact of allele noninteracting variables on peptide presentation.

According to equation (21), the presentation likelihood that a peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by one or more MHC alleles H can be generated by applying the function g_h(⋅) to the encoded version of the peptide sequence p^kfor each of the MHC alleles H to generate the corresponding dependency score for allele interacting variables for each MHC allele h. The function g_w(⋅) for the allele noninteracting variables is also applied to the encoded version of the allele noninteracting variables to generate the dependency score for the allele noninteracting variables. The score for the allele noninteracting variables are combined to each of the dependency scores for the allele interacting variables. Each of the combined scores are transformed by the function ƒ(⋅) to generate the implicit per-allele presentation likelihoods. The implicit likelihoods are combined, and the clipping function may be applied to the combined outputs to clip the values into a range [0,1] to generate the presentation likelihood that peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by the MHC alleles H. The dependency function g_wmay be in the form of any of the dependency functions g_wintroduced above in sections VIII.B.3.

$u_{k} = r (f (w^{k} \cdot θ_{w} + x_{2}^{k} \cdot θ_{2}) + f (w^{k} \cdot θ_{w} + x_{3}^{k} \cdot θ_{3})),$

where w^kare the identified allele-noninteracting variables for peptide p^k, and θ_ware set of parameters determined for the allele-noninteracting variables.

As another example, the likelihood that peptide pk will be presented by MHC alleles h=2, h=3, among m=4 different identified MHC alleles using the network transformation functions gh(⋅), gw(⋅), can be generated by:

$u_{k} = r (f (N N_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) + N N_{2} (x_{2}^{k}; θ_{2})) + f (N N_{w} (w^{k}; θ_{w}) + N N_{3} (x_{3}^{k}; θ_{3})))$

where w^kare the identified allele-interacting variables for peptide p^k, and θ_ware the set of parameters determined for allele-noninteracting variables.

FIG. 12 illustrates generating a presentation likelihood for peptide p^kin association with MHC alleles h=2, h=3 using example network models NN₂(⋅), NN₃(⋅), and NN_w(⋅). As shown in FIG. 12, the network model NN₂(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₂^kfor MHC allele h=2 and generates the output NN₂(x₂^k). The network model NN_w(⋅) receives the allele-noninteracting variables w^kfor peptide p^kand generates the output NN_w(w^k). The outputs are combined and mapped by function ƒ(⋅). The network model NN₃(⋅) receives the allele-interacting variables x₃^kfor MHC allele h=3 and generates the output NN₃(x₃^k), which is again combined with the output NN_w(w^k) of the same network model NN_w(⋅) and mapped by function ƒ(⋅). Both outputs are combined to generate the estimated presentation likelihood u_k.

In another implementation, the implicit per-allele presentation likelihood for MHC allele h is generated by:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k}^{' h} = f (g_{h} ([x_{h}^{k} w^{k}]; θ_{h})) . & (22) \end{matrix}$

such that the presentation likelihood is generated by:

$u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = r (\sum_{h = 1}^{m} a_{h}^{k} \cdot f (g_{h} ([x_{h}^{k} w^{k}]; θ_{h}))) .$

IX.C.7. Example 4: Second Order Models

In one implementation, s(⋅) is a second-order function, and the estimated presentation likelihood u_kfor peptide p^kis given by:

$\begin{matrix} u_{k} = \Pr (p^{k} presented) = \sum_{h = 1}^{m} a_{h}^{k} \cdot u_{k}^{' h} (θ) - \sum_{h = 1}^{m} \sum_{j < h} a_{h}^{k} \cdot a_{j}^{k} \cdot u_{k}^{' h} (θ) \cdot u_{k}^{' j} (θ) & (23) \end{matrix}$

where elements u′_k^hare the implicit per-allele presentation likelihood for MHC allele h. The values for the set of parameters θ for the implicit per-allele likelihoods can be determined by minimizing the loss function with respect to θ, where i is each instance in the subset S of training data 170 generated from cells expressing single MHC alleles and/or cells expressing multiple MHC alleles. The implicit per-allele presentation likelihoods may be in any form shown in equations (18), (20), and (22) described above.

In one aspect, the model of equation (23) may imply that there exists a possibility peptide p^kwill be presented by two MHC alleles simultaneously, in which the presentation by two HLA alleles is statistically independent.

According to equation (23), the presentation likelihood that a peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by one or more MHC alleles H can be generated by combining the implicit per-allele presentation likelihoods and subtracting the likelihood that each pair of MHC alleles will simultaneously present the peptide p^kfrom the summation to generate the presentation likelihood that peptide sequence p^kwill be presented by the MHC alleles H.

As an example, the likelihood that peptide p^kwill be presented by HLA alleles h=2, h=3, among m=4 different identified HLA alleles using the affine transformation functions g_h(⋅), can be generated by:

$u_{k} = f (x_{2}^{k} \cdot θ_{2}) + f (x_{3}^{k} \cdot θ_{3}) - f (x_{2}^{k} \cdot θ_{2}) \cdot f (x_{3}^{k} \cdot θ_{3}),$

where x₂^k, x₃^kare the identified allele-interacting variables for HLA alleles h=2, h=3, and θ₂, θ₃are the set of parameters determined for HLA alleles h=2, h=3.

As another example, the likelihood that peptide p^kwill be presented by HLA alleles h=2, h=3, among m=4 different identified HLA alleles using the network transformation functions g_h(⋅), g_w(⋅), can be generated by:

$u_{k} = f (N N_{2} (x_{2}^{k}; θ_{2})) + f (N N_{3} (x_{3}^{k}; θ_{3})) - f (N N_{2} (x_{2}^{k}; θ_{2})) \cdot f (N N_{3} (x_{3}^{k}; θ_{3})),$

where NN₂(⋅), NN₃(⋅) are the identified network models for HLA alleles h=2, h=3, and θ₂, θ₃are the set of parameters determined for HLA alleles h=2, h=3.

X. Example 5: Prediction Module

The prediction module 320 receives sequence data and selects candidate neoantigens in the sequence data using the presentation models. Specifically, the sequence data may be DNA sequences, RNA sequences, and/or protein sequences extracted from tumor tissue cells of patients. The prediction module 320 processes the sequence data into a plurality of peptide sequences p^khaving 8-15 amino acids for MHC-I or 6-30 amino acids for MHC-II. For example, the prediction module 320 may process the given sequence “IEFROEIFJEF (SEQ ID NO: 16) into three peptide sequences having 9 amino acids “IEFROEIFJ (SEQ ID NO: 17),” “EFROEIFJE (SEQ ID NO: 18),” and “FROEIFJEF (SEQ ID NO: 19).” In one embodiment, the prediction module 320 may identify candidate neoantigens that are mutated peptide sequences by comparing sequence data extracted from normal tissue cells of a patient with the sequence data extracted from tumor tissue cells of the patient to identify portions containing one or more mutations.

The prediction module 320 applies one or more of the presentation models to the processed peptide sequences to estimate presentation likelihoods of the peptide sequences. Specifically, the prediction module 320 may select one or more candidate neoantigen peptide sequences that are likely to be presented on tumor HLA molecules by applying the presentation models to the candidate neoantigens. In one implementation, the prediction module 320 selects candidate neoantigen sequences that have estimated presentation likelihoods above a predetermined threshold. In another implementation, the presentation model selects the v candidate neoantigen sequences that have the highest estimated presentation likelihoods (where v is generally the maximum number of epitopes that can be delivered in a vaccine). A vaccine including the selected candidate neoantigens for a given patient can be injected into the patient to induce immune responses.

XI. Example 6: Cassette Design Module
XI.A. Overview

The cassette design module 324 generates a vaccine cassette sequence based on the v selected candidate peptides for injection into a patient. Specifically, for a set of selected peptides p^k, k=1, 2, . . . , v for inclusion in a vaccine of capacity v, the cassette sequence is given by concatenation of a series of therapeutic epitope sequences p′^k, k=1, 2, . . . , v that each include the sequence of a corresponding peptide p^k. The cassette design module 324 may concatenate the epitopes directly adjacent to one another. For example, a vaccine cassette C may be represented as:

$\begin{matrix} C = [\begin{matrix} p^{' t_{1}} & p^{' t_{2}} & \dots & p^{' t_{v}} \end{matrix}] & (24) \end{matrix}$

where p′^tidenotes the i-th epitope of the cassette. Thus, t_icorresponds to an index k=1, 2, . . . , v for the selected peptide at the i-th position of the cassette. The cassette design module 324 may concatenate the epitopes with one or more optional linker sequences in between adjacent epitopes. For example, a vaccine cassette C may be represented as:

$\begin{matrix} C = [\begin{matrix} p^{' t_{1}} l_{(t_{1}, t_{2})} & p^{' t_{2}} l_{(t_{2}, t_{3})} & \dots & l_{(t_{v - 1}, t_{v})} p^{' t_{v}} \end{matrix}] & (25) \end{matrix}$

where l_(ti,tj)denotes a linker sequence placed between the i-th epitope p′^tiand the j=i+1-th epitope p′^j=i+1of the cassette. The cassette design module 324 determines which of the selected epitopes p′^k=1, 2, . . . , v are arranged at the different positions of the cassette, as well as any linker sequences placed between the epitopes. A cassette sequence C can be loaded as a vaccine based on any of the methods described in the present specification.

The set of therapeutic epitopes may be generated based on the selected peptides determined by the prediction module 320 associated with presentation likelihoods above a predetermined threshold, where the presentation likelihoods are determined by the presentation models. However it is appreciated that in other embodiments, the set of therapeutic epitopes may be generated based on any one or more of a number of methods (alone or in combination), for example, based on binding affinity or predicted binding affinity to HLA class I or class II alleles of the patient, binding stability or predicted binding stability to HLA class I or class II alleles of the patient, random sampling, and the like.

In one embodiment, the therapeutic epitopes p′^kmay correspond to the selected peptides p^kthemselves. The therapeutic epitopes p′^kmay also include C- and/or N-terminal flanking sequences in addition to the selected peptides. For example, an epitope p′^kincluded in the cassette may be represented as a sequence [n^kp^kc^k] where c^kis a C-terminal flanking sequence attached the C-terminus of the selected peptide p^k, and n^kis an N-terminal flanking sequence attached to the N-terminus of the selected peptide p^k. In one instance referred throughout the remainder of the specification, the N- and C-terminal flanking sequences are the native N- and C-terminal flanking sequences of the therapeutic vaccine epitope in the context of its source protein. In one instance referred throughout the remainder of the specification, the therapeutic epitope p′^krepresents a fixed-length epitope. In another instance, the therapeutic epitope p′^kcan represent a variable-length epitope, in which the length of the epitope can be varied depending on, for example, the length of the C- or N-flanking sequence. For example, the C-terminal flanking sequence c^kand the N-terminal flanking sequence n^kcan each have varying lengths of 2-5 residues, resulting in 16 possible choices for the epitope p′^k*.

The cassette design module 324 generates cassette sequences by taking into account presentation of junction epitopes that span the junction between a pair of therapeutic epitopes in the cassette. Junction epitopes are novel non-self but irrelevant epitope sequences that arise in the cassette due to the process of concatenating therapeutic epitopes and linker sequences in the cassette. The novel sequences of junction epitopes are different from the therapeutic epitopes of the cassette themselves. A junction epitope spanning epitopes p′^tiand p′^tjmay include any epitope sequence that overlaps with both p′^tior p′^tjthat is different from the sequences of therapeutic epitopes p′^tiand p′^tjthemselves. Specifically, each junction between epitope p′^tiand an adjacent epitope p′^tjof the cassette with or without an optional linker sequence l^(ti,tj)may be associated with n_(ti,tj)junction epitopes e_n^(ti,tj), n=1, 2, . . . , n_(ti,tj). The junction epitopes may be sequences that at least partially overlap with both epitopes p′^tiand p′^tj, or may be sequences that at least partially overlap with linker sequences placed between the epitopes p′^tiand p′^tj. Junction epitopes may be presented by MHC class I, MHC class II, or both.

FIG. 13 shows two example cassette sequences, cassette 1 (C₁) and cassette 2 (C₂). Each cassette has a vaccine capacity of v=2, and includes therapeutic epitopes p′^t1=p¹=SINFEKL (SEQ ID NO: 20) and p′^t2=²=LLLLLVVVV (SEQ ID NO: 21), and a linker sequence l^(t1,t2)=AAY in between the two epitopes. Specifically, the sequence of cassette C₁is given by [p¹l^(t1,t2)p²], while the sequence of cassette C₂is given by [p²l^(t1,t2)p¹]. Example junction epitopes e_n^(1,2)of cassette C₁may be sequences such as EKLAAYLLL (SEQ ID NO: 22), KLAAYLLLLL (SEQ ID NO: 23), and FEKLAAYL (SEQ ID NO: 24) that span across both epitopes p′¹and p′²in the cassette, and may be sequences such as AAYLLLLL (SEQ ID NO: 25) and YLLLLLVVV (SEQ ID NO: 26) that span across the linker sequence and a single selected epitope in the cassette. Similarly, example junction epitopes e_m^(2,1)of cassette C₂may be sequences such as VVVVAAYSIN (SEQ ID NO: 27), VVVVAAY (SEQ ID NO: 28), and AYSINFEK (SEQ ID NO: 29). Although both cassettes involve the same set of sequences p¹, l^(c1,c2), and p², the set of junction epitopes that are identified are different depending on the ordered sequence of the therapeutic epitopes within the cassette.

The cassette design module 324 generates a cassette sequence that reduces the likelihood that junction epitopes are presented in the patient. Specifically, when the cassette is injected into the patient, junction epitopes have the potential to be presented by HLA class I or HLA class II alleles of the patient, and stimulate a CD8 or CD4 T-cell response, respectively. Such reactions are often times undesirable because T-cells reactive to the junction epitopes have no therapeutic benefit, and may diminish the immune response to the selected therapeutic epitopes in the cassette by antigenic competition.⁷⁶

In one embodiment, the cassette design module 324 iterates through one or more candidate cassettes, and determines a cassette sequence for which a presentation score of junction epitopes associated with that cassette sequence is below a numerical threshold. The junction epitope presentation score is a quantity associated with presentation likelihoods of the junction epitopes in the cassette, and a higher value of the junction epitope presentation score indicates a higher likelihood that junction epitopes of the cassette will be presented by HLA class I or HLA class II or both.

The cassette design module 324 may determine a cassette sequence associated with the lowest junction epitope presentation score among the candidate cassette sequences or select cassette sequences that have a presentation score below a predetermined threshold. In one instance, the presentation score for a given cassette sequence C is determined based on a set of distance metrics d(e_n^(ti,tj), n=1, 2, . . . , n_(ti,tj))=d_(ti,tj)each associated with a junction in the cassette C. Specifically, a distance metric d_(ti,tj)specifies a likelihood that one or more of the junction epitopes spanning between the pair of adjacent therapeutic epitopes p′^tiand p′^tjwill be presented. The junction epitope presentation score for cassette C can then be determined by applying a function (e.g., summation, statistical function) to the set of distance metrics for the cassette C. Mathematically, the presentation score is given by:

$\begin{matrix} score = h (d_{(t_{1}, t_{2})}, d_{(t_{2}, t_{3})}, \dots, d_{(t_{v - 1}, t_{v})}) & (26) \end{matrix}$

where h(⋅) is some function mapping the distance metrics of each junction to a score. In one particular instance referred throughout the remainder of the specification, the function h(⋅) is the summation across the distance metrics of the cassette.

The cassette design module 324 may iterate through one or more candidate cassette sequences, determine the junction epitope presentation score for the candidate cassettes, and identify an optimal cassette sequence associated with a junction epitope presentation score below the threshold. In one particular embodiment referred throughout the remainder of the specification, the distance metric d(⋅) for a given junction may be given by the sum of the presentation likelihoods or the expected number presented junction epitopes as determined by the presentation models described in sections VII and VIII of the specification. However, it is appreciated that in other embodiments, the distance metric may be derived from other factors alone or in combination with the models like the one exemplified above, where these other factors may include deriving the distance metric from any one or more of (alone or in combination): HLA binding affinity or stability measurements or predictions for HLA class I or HLA class II, and a presentation or immunogenicity model trained on HLA mass spectrometry or T-cell epitope data, for HLA class I or HLA class II. For example, the distance metric may combine information about HLA class I and HLA class II presentation. For example, the distance metric could be the number of junction epitopes predicted to bind any of the patient's HLA class I or HLA class II alleles with binding affinity below a threshold. In another example, the distance metric could be the expected number of junction epitopes predicted to be presented by any of the patient's HLA class I or HLA class II alleles.

The cassette design module 324 may further check the one or more candidate cassette sequences to identify if any of the junction epitopes in the candidate cassette sequences are self-epitopes for a given patient for whom the vaccine is being designed. To accomplish this, the cassette design module 324 checks the junction epitopes against a known database such as BLAST. In one embodiment, the cassette design module may be configured to design cassettes that avoid junction self-epitopes by setting the distance metric d_(ti,tj)to a very large value (e.g., 100) for pairs of epitopes t_i,t_jwhere concatenating epitope t_ito the N-terminus of epitope t_jresults in the formation of a junction self-epitope.

Returning to the example in FIG. 13, the cassette design module 324 determines (for example) a distance metric d_(t1,t2)=d_(1,2)=0.39 for the single junction (t₁,t₂) in cassette C₁given by the summation of presentation likelihoods of all possible junction epitopes e_n^(t1,t2)=e_n^(1,2)having lengths, for example, from 8 to 15 amino acids for MHC class I, or 9-30 amino acids for MHC class II. Since no other junctions are present in cassette C₁, the junction epitope presentation score, which is a summation across the distance metrics for cassette C₁, is also given by 0.39. The cassette design module 324 also determines a distance metric d_(t1,t2)=d_(2,1)=0.068 for the single junction in cassette C₂given by the summation of presentation likelihoods of all possible junction epitopes e_n^(t1,t2)=e_n^(2,1)having lengths from 8 to 15 for MHC class I, or 9-30 amino acids for MHC class II. In this example, the junction epitope presentation score for cassette C₂is also given by the distance metric of the single junction 0.068. The cassette design module 324 outputs the cassette sequence of C₂as the optimal cassette since the junction epitope presentation score is lower than the cassette sequence of C₁.

The cassette design module 324 can perform a brute force approach and iterates through all or most possible candidate cassette sequences to select the sequence with the smallest junction epitope presentation score. However, the number of such candidate cassettes can be prohibitively large as the capacity of the vaccine v increases. For example, for a vaccine capacity of v=20 epitopes, the cassette design module 324 has to iterate through ˜10¹⁸possible candidate cassettes to determine the cassette with the lowest junction epitope presentation score. This determination may be computationally burdensome (in terms of computational processing resources required), and sometimes intractable, for the cassette design module 324 to complete within a reasonable amount of time to generate the vaccine for the patient. Moreover, accounting for the possible junction epitopes for each candidate cassette can be even more burdensome. Thus, the cassette design module 324 may select a cassette sequence based on ways of iterating through a number of candidate cassette sequences that are significantly smaller than the number of candidate cassette sequences for the brute force approach.

In one embodiment, the cassette design module 324 generates a subset of randomly or at least pseudo-randomly generated candidate cassettes, and selects the candidate cassette associated with a junction epitope presentation score below a predetermined threshold as the cassette sequence. Additionally, the cassette design module 324 may select the candidate cassette from the subset with the lowest junction epitope presentation score as the cassette sequence. For example, the cassette design module 324 may generate a subset of ˜1 million candidate cassettes for a set of v=20 selected epitopes, and select the candidate cassette with the smallest junction epitope presentation score. Although generating a subset of random cassette sequences and selecting a cassette sequence with a low junction epitope presentation score out of the subset may be sub-optimal relative to the brute force approach, it requires significantly less computational resources thereby making its implementation technically feasible. Further, performing the brute force method as opposed to this more efficient technique may only result in a minor or even negligible improvement in junction epitope presentation score, thus making it not worthwhile from a resource allocation perspective.

In another embodiment, the cassette design module 324 determines an improved cassette configuration by formulating the epitope sequence for the cassette as an asymmetric traveling salesman problem (TSP). Given a list of nodes and distances between each pair of nodes, the TSP determines a sequence of nodes associated with the shortest total distance to visit each node exactly once and return to the original node. For example, given cities A, B, and C with known distances between each other, the solution of the TSP generates a closed sequence of cities, for which the total distance traveled to visit each city exactly once is the smallest among possible routes. The asymmetric version of the TSP determines the optimal sequence of nodes when the distance between a pair of nodes are asymmetric. For example, the “distance” for traveling from node A to node B may be different from the “distance” for traveling from node B to node A.

The cassette design module 324 determines an improved cassette sequence by solving an asymmetric TSP, in which each node corresponds to a therapeutic epitope p′^k. The distance from a node corresponding to epitope p′^kto another node corresponding to epitope p′^mis given by the junction epitope distance metric d_(k,m), while the distance from the node corresponding to the epitope p′^mto the node corresponding to epitope p′^kis given by the distance metric d_(m,k)that may be different from the distance metric d_(k,m). By solving for an improved optimal cassette using an asymmetric TSP, the cassette design module 324 can find a cassette sequence that results in a reduced presentation score across the junctions between epitopes of the cassette. The solution of the asymmetric TSP indicates a sequence of therapeutic epitopes that correspond to the order in which the epitopes should be concatenated in a cassette to minimize the junction epitope presentation score across the junctions of the cassette. Specifically, given the set of therapeutic epitopes k=1, 2, . . . , v, the cassette design module 324 determines the distance metrics d_(k,m), k,m=1, 2, . . . , v for each possible ordered pair of therapeutic epitopes in the cassette. In other words, for a given pair k, m of epitopes, both the distance metric d_(k,m)for concatenating therapeutic epitope p′^mafter epitope p′^kand the distance metric d_(m,k)for concatenating therapeutic epitope p′^kafter epitope p′^mis determined, since these distance metrics may be different from each other.

The cassette design module 324 solves the asymmetric TSP through an integer linear programming problem. Specifically, the cassette design module 324 generates a (v+1)×(v+1) path matrix P given by the following:

$\begin{matrix} P = [\begin{matrix} 0 & 0^{1 \times v} \\ 0^{v \times 1} & D \end{matrix}] . & (26) \end{matrix}$

The v×v matrix D is an asymmetric distance matrix, where each element D(k, m), k=1, 2, . . . , v; m=1, 2, . . . , v corresponds to the distance metric for a junction from epitope p′^kto epitope p′^m. Rows k=2, . . . , v of P correspond to nodes of the original epitopes, while row 1 and column 1 corresponds to a “ghost node” that is at zero distance from all other nodes. The addition of the “ghost node” to the matrix encodes the notion that the vaccine cassette is linear rather than circular, so there is no junction between the first and last epitopes. In other words, the sequence is not circular, and the first epitope is not assumed to be concatenated after the last epitope in the sequence. Let x_kmdenote a binary variable whose value is 1 if there is a directed path (i.e., an epitope-epitope junction in the cassette) where epitope p′^kis concatenated to the N-terminus of epitope p′^mand 0 otherwise. In addition, let E denote the set of all v therapeutic vaccine epitopes, and let S⊂E denote a subset of epitopes. For any such subset S, let out(S) denote the number of epitope-epitope junctions x_km=1 where k is an epitope in S and m is an epitope in E\S. Given a known path matrix P, the cassette design module 324 finds a path matrix X that solves the following integer linear programming problem:

$\begin{matrix} \min_{x} \sum_{k = 1}^{v + 1} \sum_{k \neq m, m = 1}^{v + 1} P_{k m} \cdot x_{k m} & (27) \end{matrix}$

in which P_kmdenotes element P(k,m) of the path matrix P, subject to the following constraints:

$\begin{matrix} \sum_{k = 1}^{v + 1} x_{k m} = 1, & m = 1, 2, \dots, v + 1 \\ \sum_{m = 1}^{v + 1} x_{k m} = 1, & k = 1, 2, \dots, v + 1 \\ x_{k k} = 0, & k = 1, 2, \dots, v + 1 \\ out (S) \geq 1, & S \subset E, 2 \leq ❘ S ❘ \leq ❘ V ❘ / 2 \end{matrix}$

The first two constraints guarantee that each epitope appears exactly once in the cassette. The last constraint ensures that the cassette is connected. In other words, the cassette encoded by x is a connected linear protein sequence.

The solutions for x_km, k,m=1, 2, . . . , v+1 in the integer linear programming problem of equation (27) indicates the closed sequence of nodes and ghost nodes that can be used to infer one or more sequences of therapeutic epitopes for the cassette that lower the presentation score of junction epitopes. Specifically, a value of x_km=1 indicates that a “path” exists from node k to node m, or in other words, that therapeutic epitope p′^mshould be concatenated after therapeutic epitope p′^kin the improved cassette sequence. A solution of x_km=0 indicates that no such path exists, or in other words, that therapeutic epitope p′^mshould not be concatenated after therapeutic epitope p′^kin the improved cassette sequence. Collectively, the values of x_kmin the integer programming problem of equation (27) represent a sequence of nodes and the ghost node, in which the path enters and exists each node exactly once. For example, the values of x_ghost,1=1, x₁₃=1, x₃₂=1, and x_2,ghost=1 (0 otherwise) may indicate a sequence ghost→1→3→2→ghost of nodes and ghost nodes.

Once the sequence has been solved for, the ghost nodes are deleted from the sequence to generate a refined sequence with only the original nodes corresponding to therapeutic epitopes in the cassette. The refined sequence indicates the order in which selected epitopes should be concatenated in the cassette to improve the presentation score. For example, continuing from the example in the previous paragraph, the ghost node may be deleted to generate a refined sequence 1→3→2. The refined sequence indicates one possible way to concatenate epitopes in the cassette, namely p¹→p³→p²

When the therapeutic epitopes p′^kare variable-length epitopes, the cassette design module 324 determines candidate distance metrics corresponding to different lengths of the therapeutic epitopes p′^kand p′^m, and identifies the distance metric d_(k,m)as the smallest candidate distance metric. For example, epitopes p′^k=[n^kp^kc^k] and p′^m=[n^mp^mc^m] may each include a corresponding N- and C-terminal flanking sequence that can vary from (in one embodiment) 2-5 amino acids. Thus, the junction between epitopes p′^kand p′^mis associated with 16 different sets of junction epitopes based on the 4 possible length values of n^kand the 4 possible length values of c^mthat are placed in the junction. The cassette design module 324 may determine candidate distance metrics for each set of junction epitopes, and determine the distance metric d_(k,m)as the smallest value. The cassette design module 324 can then construct the path matrix P and solve for the integer linear programming problem in equation (27) to determine the cassette sequence.

Compared to the random sampling approach, solving for the cassette sequence using the integer programming problem requires determination of v×(v−1) distance metrics each corresponding to a pair of therapeutic epitopes in the vaccine. A cassette sequence determined through this approach can result in a sequence with significantly less presentation of junction epitopes while potentially requiring significantly less computational resources than the random sampling approach, especially when the number of generated candidate cassette sequences is large.

XI.B. Comparison of Junction Epitope Presentation for Cassette Sequences Generated by Random Sampling vs. Asymmetric TSP

Two cassette sequences including v=20 therapeutic epitopes were generated by random sampling 1,000,000 permutations (cassette sequence C₁), and by solving the integer linear programming problem in equation (27) (cassette sequence C₂). The distance metrics, and thus, the presentation score was determined based on the presentation model described in equation (14), in which ƒ is the sigmoid function, x_hⁱis the sequence of peptide pⁱ, g_h(⋅) is the neural network function, w includes the flanking sequence, the log transcripts per kilobase million (TPM) of peptide pⁱ, the antigenicity of the protein of peptide pⁱ, and the sample ID of origin of peptide pⁱ, and g_w(⋅) of the flanking sequence and the log TPM are neural network functions, respectively. Each of the neural network functions for g_h(⋅) included one output node of a one-hidden-layer multilayer perceptron (MLP) with input dimensions 231 (11 residues×21 characters per residue, including pad characters), width 256, rectified linear unit (ReLU) activations in the hidden layer, linear activations in the output layer, and one output node per HLA allele in the training data set. The neural network function for the flanking sequence was a one hidden-layer MLP with input dimension 210 (5 residues of N-terminal flanking sequence+5 residues of C-terminal flanking sequence×21 characters per residue, including the pad characters), width 32, ReLU activations in the hidden layer and linear activation in the output layer. The neural network function for the RNA log TPM was a one hidden layer MLP with input dimension 1, width 16, ReLU activations in the hidden layer and linear activation in the output layer. The presentation models were constructed for HLA alleles HLA-A*02:04, HLA-A*02:07, HLA-B*40:01, HLA-B*40:02, HLA-C*16:02, and HLA-C*16:04. The presentation score indicating the expected number of presented junction epitopes of the two cassette sequences were compared. Results showed that the presentation score for the cassette sequence generated by solving the equation of (27) was associated with a ˜4 fold improvement over the presentation score for the cassette sequence generated by random sampling.

Specifically, the v=20 epitopes were given by:

(SEQ ID NO: 30)

p′¹ = YNYSYWISIFAHTMWYNIWHVQWNK

(SEQ ID NO: 31)

p′² = IEALPYVFLQDQFELRLLKGEQGNN

(SEQ ID NO: 32)

p′³ = DSEETNTNYLHYCHFHWTWAQQTTV

(SEQ ID NO: 33)

p′⁴ = GMLSQYELKDCSLGFSWNDPAKYLR

(SEQ ID NO: 34)

p′⁵ = VRIDKFLMYVWYSAPFSAYPLYQDA

(SEQ ID NO: 35)

p′⁶ = CVHIYNNYPRMLGIPFSVMVSGFAM

(SEQ ID NO: 36)

p′⁷ = FTFKGNIWIEMAGQFERTWNYPLSL

(SEQ ID NO: 37)

p′⁸ = ANDDTPDFRKCYIEDHSFRFSQTMN

(SEQ ID NO: 38)

p′⁹ = AAQYIACMVNRQMTIVYHLTRWGMK

(SEQ ID NO: 39)

p′¹⁰ = KYLKEFTQLLTFVDCYMWITFCGPD

(SEQ ID NO: 40)

p′¹¹ = AMHYRTDIHGYWIEYRQVDNQMWNT

(SEQ ID NO: 41)

p′¹² = THVNEHQLEAVYRFHQVHCRFPYEN

(SEQ ID NO: 42)

p′¹³ = QTFSECLFFHCLKVWNNVKYAKSLK

(SEQ ID NO: 43)

p′¹⁴ = SFSSWHYKESHIALLMSPKKNHNNT

(SEQ ID NO: 44)

p′¹⁵ = ILDGIMSRWEKVCTRQTRYSYCQCA

(SEQ ID NO: 45)

p′¹⁶ = YRAAQMSKWPNKYFDFPEFMAYMPI

(SEQ ID NO: 46)

p′¹⁷ = PRPGMPCQHHNTHGLNDRQAFDDFV

(SEQ ID NO: 47)

p′¹⁸ = HNIISDETEVWEQAPHITWVYMWCR

(SEQ ID NO: 48)

p′¹⁹ = AYSWPVVPMKWIPYRALCANHPPGT

(SEQ ID NO: 49)

p′²⁰ = HVMPHVAMNICNWYEFLYRISHIGR.

In the first example, 1,000,000 different candidate cassette sequences were randomly generated with the 20 therapeutic epitopes. The presentation score was generated for each of the candidate cassette sequences. The candidate cassette sequence identified to have the lowest presentation score was:

(SEQ ID NO: 50)

C₁ = THVNEHQLEAVYRFHQVHCRFPYENAMHYQMWNTYRAAQMSKWP

NKYFDFPEFMAYMPICVHIYNNYPRMLGIPFSVMVSGFAMAYSWPVVPM

KWIPYRALCANHPPGTANDDTPDFRKCYIEDHSFRFSQTMNIEALPYVF

LQDQFELRLLKGEQGNNDSEETNTNYLHYCHFHWTWAQQTTVILDGIMS

RWEKVCTRQTRYSYCQCAFTFKGNIWIEMAGQFERTWNYPLSLSFSSWH

YKESHIALLMSPKKNHNNTQTFSECLFFHCLKVWNNVKYAKSLKHVMPH

VAMNICNWYEFLYRISHIGRHNIISDETEVWEQAPHITWVYMWCRVRID

KFLMYVWYSAPFSAYPLYQDAKYLKEFTQLLTFVDCYMWITFCGPDAAQ

YIACMVNRQMTIVYHLTRWGMKYNYSYWISIFAHTMWYNIWHVQWNKGM

LSQYELKDCSLGFSWNDPAKYLRPRPGMPCQHHNTHGLNDRQAFDDFV

with a presentation score of 6.1 expected number of presented junction epitopes. The median presentation score of the 1,000,000 random sequences was 18.3. The experiment shows that the expected number of presented junction epitopes can be significantly reduced by identifying a cassette sequence among randomly sampled cassettes.

In the second example, a cassette sequence C₂was identified by solving the integer linear programming problem in equation (27). Specifically, the distance metric of each potential junction between a pair of therapeutic epitopes was determined. The distance metrics were used to solve for the solution to the integer programming problem. The cassette sequence identified by this approach was:

(SEQ ID NO: 51)

C₂ = IEALPYVFLQDQFELRLLKGEQGNNILDGIMSRWEKVCTRQTRY

SYCQCAHVMPHVAMNICNWYEFLYRISHIGRTHVNEHQLEAVYRFHQVH

CRFPYENFTFKGNIWIEMAGQFERTWNYPLSLAMHYQMWNTSFSSWHYK

ESHIALLMSPKKNHNNTVRIDKFLMYVWYSAPFSAYPLYQDAQTFSECL

FFHCLKVWNNVKYAKSLKYRAAQMSKWPNKYFDFPEFMAYMPIAYSWPV

VPMKWIPYRALCANHPPGTCVHIYNNYPRMLGIPFSVMVSGFAMHNIIS

DETEVWEQAPHITWVYMWCRAAQYIACMVNRQMTIVYHLTRWGMKYNYS

YWISIFAHTMWYNIWHVQWNKGMLSQYELKDCSLGFSWNDPAKYLRKYL

KEFTQLLTFVDCYMWITFCGPDANDDTPDFRKCYIEDHSFRFSQTMNDS

EETNTNYLHYCHFHWTWAQQTTVPRPGMPCQHHNTHGLNDRQAFDDFV

with a presentation score of 1.7. The presentation score of cassette sequence C₂showed a ˜4 fold improvement over the presentation score of cassette sequence C₁, and a ˜11 fold improvement over the median presentation score of the 1,000,000 randomly generated candidate cassettes. The run-time for generating cassette C₁was 20 seconds on a single thread of a 2.30 GHz Intel Xeon E5-2650 CPU. The run-time for generating cassette C₂was 1 second on a single thread of the same CPU. Thus in this example, the cassette sequence identified by solving the integer programming problem of equation (27) produces a ˜4-fold better solution at 20-fold reduced computational cost.

The results show that the integer programming problem can potentially provide a cassette sequence with a lower number of presented junction epitopes than one identified from random sampling, potentially with less computation resources.

XI.C. Comparison of Junction Epitope Presentation for Cassette Sequence Selection Generated by MHCflurry and the Presentation Model

In this example, cassette sequences including v=20 therapeutic epitopes were selected based off tumor/normal exome sequencing, tumor transcriptome sequencing and HLA typing of a lung cancer sample were generated by random sampling 1,000,000 permutations, and by solving the integer linear programming problem in equation (27). The distance metrics, and thus, the presentation score were determined based on the number of junction epitopes predicted by MHCflurry, an HLA-peptide binding affinity predictor, to bind the patient's HLAs with affinity below a variety of thresholds (e.g., 50-1000 nM, or higher, or lower). In this example, the 20 nonsynonymous somatic mutations chosen as therapeutic epitopes were selected from among the 98 somatic mutations identified in the tumor sample by ranking the mutations according to the presentation model in Section XI.B above. However, it is appreciated that in other embodiments, the therapeutic epitopes may be selected based on other criteria; such as those based stability, or combinations of criteria such as presentation score, affinity, and so on. In addition, it is appreciated that the criteria used for prioritizing therapeutic epitopes for inclusion in the vaccine need not be the same as the criteria used for determining the distance metric D(k, m) used in the cassette design module 324.

The patient's HLA class I alleles were HLA-A*01:01, HLA-A*03:01, HLA-B*07: 02, HLA-B*35:03, HLA-C*07:02, HLA-C*14:02.

Specifically in this example, the v=20 therapeutic epitopes were

(SEQ ID NO: 52)

SSTPYLYYGTSSVSYQFPMVPGGDR

(SEQ ID NO: 53)

EMAGKIDLLRDSYIFQLFWREAAEP

(SEQ ID NO: 54)

ALKQRTWQALAHKYNSQPSVSLRDF

(SEQ ID NO: 55)

VSSHSSQATKDSAVGLKYSASTPVR

(SEQ ID NO: 56)

KEAIDAWAPYLPEYIDHVISPGVTS

(SEQ ID NO: 57)

SPVITAPPSSPVFDTSDIRKEPMNI

(SEQ ID NO: 58)

PAEVAEQYSEKLVYMPHTFFIGDHA

(SEQ ID NO: 59)

MADLDKLNIHSIIQRLLEVRGS

(SEQ ID NO: 60)

AAAYNEKSGRITLLSLLFQKVFAQI

(SEQ ID NO: 61)

KIEEVRDAMENEIRTQLRRQAAAHT

(SEQ ID NO: 62)

DRGHYVLCDFGSTTNKFQNPQTEGV

(SEQ ID NO: 63)

QVDNRKAEAEEAIKRLSYISQKVSD

(SEQ ID NO: 64)

CLSDAGVRKMTAAVRVMKRGLENLT

(SEQ ID NO: 65)

LPPRSLPSDPFSQVPASPQSQSSSQ

(SEQ ID NO: 66)

ELVLEDLQDGDVKMGGSFRGAFSNS

(SEQ ID NO: 67)

VTMDGVREEDLASFSLRKRWESEPH

(SEQ ID NO: 68)

IVGVMFFERAFDEGADAIYDHINEG

(SEQ ID NO: 69)

TVTPTPTPTGTQSPTPTPITTTTTV

(SEQ ID NO: 70)

QEEMPPRPCGGHTSSSLPKSHLEPS

(SEQ ID NO: 71)

PNIQAVLLPKKTDSHHKAKGK

Results from this example in the table below compare the number of junction epitopes predicted by MHCflurry to bind the patient's HLAs with affinity below the value in the threshold column (where nM stands for nanoMolar) as found via three example methods. For the first method, the optimal cassette found via the traveling salesman problem (ATSP) formulation described above with is run-time. For the second method, the optimal cassette as determined by taking the best cassette found after 1 million random samples. For the third method, the median number of junction epitopes was found in the 1 million random samples.

Random Sampling #
Median #

Threshold
ATSP # Binding
Binding Junction
Binding Junction

(nM)
Junction Epitopes
Epitopes
Epitopes

50
0
0
3

100
0
0
7

150
0
1
12

500
15
26
55

1000
68
91
131

The results of this example illustrate that any one of a number of criteria may be used to identify whether or not a given cassette design meets design requirements. Specifically, as demonstrated by prior examples, the selected cassette sequence out of many candidates may be specified by the cassette sequence having a lowest junction epitope presentation score, or at least such a score below an identified threshold. This example represents that another criteria, such as binding affinity, may be used to specify whether or not a given cassette design meets design requirements. For this criteria, a threshold binding affinity (e.g., 50-1000, or greater or lower) may be set specifying that the cassette design sequence should have fewer than some threshold number of junction epitopes above the threshold (e.g., 0), and any one of a number of methods may be used (e.g., methods one through three illustrated in the table) can be used to identify if a given candidate cassette sequence meets those requirements. These example methods further illustrate that depending on the method used, the thresholds may need to be set differently. Other criteria may be envisioned, such as those based stability, or combinations of criteria such as presentation score, affinity, and so on.

In another example, the same cassettes were generated using the same HLA type and 20 therapeutic epitopes from earlier in this section (XI.C), but instead of using distance metrics based off binding affinity prediction, the distance metric for epitopes m, k was the number of peptides spanning the m to k junction predicted to be presented by the patient's HLA class I alleles with probability of presentation above a series of thresholds (between probability of 0.005 and 0.5, or higher, or lower), where the probabilities of presentation were determined by the presentation model in Section XI.B above. This example further illustrates the breadth of criteria that may be considered in identifying whether a given candidate cassette sequence meets design requirements for use in the vaccine.

Threshold
ATSP # Junction
Random Sampling #
Median #

(probability)
Epitopes
Junction Epitopes
Junction Epitopes

0.005
58
79
118

0.01
39
59
93

0.05
7
33
47

0.1
5
14
35

0.2
1
8
25

0.5
0
2
14

The examples above have identified that the criteria for determining whether a candidate cassette sequence may vary by implementation. Each of these examples has illustrated that the count of the number of junction epitopes falling above or below the criteria may be a count used in determining whether the candidate cassette sequence meets that criteria. For example, if the criteria is number of epitopes meeting or exceeding a threshold binding affinity for HLA, whether the candidate cassette sequence has greater or fewer than that number may determine whether the candidate cassette sequence meets the criteria for use as the selected cassette for the vaccine. Similarly if the criteria is the number of junction epitopes exceeding a threshold presentation likelihood.

However, in other embodiments, calculations other than counting can be performed to determine whether a candidate cassette sequence meets the design criteria. For example, rather than the count of epitopes exceeding/falling below some threshold, it may instead be determined what proportion of junction epitopes exceed or fall below the threshold, for example whether the top X % of junction epitopes have a presentation likelihood above some threshold Y, or whether X % percent of junction epitopes have an HLA binding affinity less than or greater than Z nM. These are merely examples, generally the criteria may be based on any attribute of either individual junction epitopes, or statistics derived from aggregations of some or all of the junction epitopes. Here, X can generally be any number between 0 and 100% (e.g., 75% or less) and Y can be any value between 0 and 1, and Z can be any number suitable to the criteria in question. These values may be determined empirically, and depend on the models and criteria used, as well as the quality of the training data used.

As such, in certain aspects, junction epitopes with high probabilities of presentation can be removed; junction epitopes with low probabilities of presentation can be retained; junction epitopes that bind tightly, i.e., junction epitopes with binding affinity below 1000 nM or 500 nM or some other threshold can be removed; and/or junction epitopes that bind weakly, i.e., junction epitopes with binding affinity above 1000 nM or 500 nM or some other threshold can be retained.

Although the examples above have identified candidate sequences using an implementation of the presentation model described above, these principles apply equally to an implementation where the epitopes for arrangement in the cassette sequences are identified based on other types of models as well, such as those based on affinity, stability, and so on.

XI.D. Cassette Selection for Shared Antigens and Shared Neoantigens

Rather than selecting a subset of therapeutic epitopes for a personalized vaccine for an individual patient, the series of therapeutic epitope sequences p′^k, k=1, 2, . . . , v, can be a set of epitopes associated with high likelihoods of presentation in a population of cancer patients. For example, the series of therapeutic epitope sequences may be shared antigen sequences that are sequences from genes that are identified to be over-expressed in cancer patients, and are associated with high likelihoods of presentation in a population of cancer patients. As another example, the series of therapeutic epitope sequences may be shared neoantigen sequences that are sequences associated with common driver mutations in a population of cancer patients, and are associated with high likelihoods of presentation. Thus, instead of customizing the therapeutic epitope sequences of a cassette based on the sequencing data and HLA allele type of an individual patient, the therapeutic epitope sequences may be shared among a plurality of patients.

When the cassette sequence is shared, the distance metric d_(ti,tj)between a pair of epitopes t_iand t_jmay be determined as a weighted sum of sub-distance metrics each associated with a corresponding HLA allele. Specifically, the distance metric d_(ti,tj)may be given by:

$\begin{matrix} d_{(t i, t j)} = \sum_{h = 1}^{m} w_{h} \cdot d_{h, (t i, t j)}^{'} & (28) \end{matrix}$

where d_h,(ti,tj)is the sub-distance metric that specifies a likelihood one or more junction epitopes e_n^(ti,tj), n=1, 2, . . . , n_(ti,tj)spanning between the pair of adjacent therapeutic epitopes will be presented on HLA allele h, and w_his a weight indicating the prevalence of HLA allele h in a given population of patients. By setting the distance metric as in equation (28) or any other similar manner in which the prevalence of HLA alleles are used to weight the presentation of junction epitopes, cassette sequences can be selected that reduce junction epitope presentation for HLA alleles that estimated to be more prevalent in the patient population.

The sub-distance metric associated with HLA allele h may be given by the sum of the presentation likelihoods or the expected number of presented junction epitopes on the HLA allele h as determined by the presentation models described in sections VII and VIII of the specification. However, it is appreciated that in other embodiments, the sub-distance metric may be derived from other factors alone or in combination with the models like the one exemplified above, where these other factors may include deriving the sub-distance metric from any one or more of (alone or in combination): HLA binding affinity or stability measurements or predictions for HLA class I or HLA class II, and a presentation or immunogenicity model trained on HLA mass spectrometry or T-cell epitope data, for HLA class I or HLA class II. The sub-distance metric may combine information about HLA class I and HLA class II presentation. For example, the sub-distance metric could be the number of junction epitopes predicted to bind to any of the patient's HLA class I or HLA class II alleles with binding affinity below a threshold. In another example, the sub-distance metric could be the expected number of junction epitopes predicted to be presented by any of the patient's HLA class I or HLA class II alleles.

Based on the distance metric defined in equation (28), the cassette design module 324 may iterate through one or more candidate cassette sequences, determine the junction epitope presentation score for the candidate cassettes, and identify an optical cassette sequence associated with a junction epitope presentation score below a threshold, using any of the methods introduced in section XI.A above.

XI.E. Comparison of Junction Epitope Presentation for Cassette Sequences Generated by Random Sampling vs. Asymmetric TSP for Shared Antigens and Shared Neoantigens

In this example, the cassettes were generated using the same 20 therapeutic epitopes from Section XI.C, and the expected number of junction epitopes for cassette sequences found by the three example methods was compared. Different from Section XI.C, the distance metric and distance matrix were determined using equation (28). The allele frequencies, denoted as w_hin equation (28), were calculated using the model training samples from Section XI.B across 28 HLA-A, 43 HLA-B and 23 HLA-C alleles. These were the alleles supported by the model. The frequencies were calculated individually for each gene, HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C. Each distance metric was determined based on the expected number of presented junction epitopes that were above a threshold presentation likelihood weighted by corresponding allele frequencies at different threshold probabilities. Similarly to Section XI.B, for the first method, the optimal cassette was found via the traveling salesman problem (ATSP) formulation described above. For the second method, the optimal cassette was determined by taking the best cassette found after 1 million random samples. For the third method, the median number of junction epitopes was found in the 1 million random samples. Specifically, the distance matrix for the ATSP method is the weighted sum of single-allele distance sub-matrices, weighted by the allele frequency.

Expected # of
Expected # of
Expected # of

Threshold
ATSP Junction
Random Sampling
Median Junction

(probability)
Epitopes
Junction Epitopes
Epitopes

0.005
64.4
82.7
112.3

0.01
46.2
62.2
86.2

0.05
18.0
25.3
41.5

0.1
10.0
16.5
27.5

0.2
5.4
8.8
16.7

0.5
1.4
3.0
6.5

As shown in the table above, the results are no longer integer-valued as in Section XI.C, because the distance matrix is no longer integer-valued since the distance metric in each method is a weighted expectation of junction epitopes based upon the allele frequency. The results show that the integer programming problem can also provide a cassette sequence for shared antigens or shared neoantigens that greatly reduces the chance of presented junction epitopes for shared (neo-)antigen vaccine cassette packing, compared to one identified from random sampling, and potentially with less computational resources.

In another example, the cassettes were generated using the same 20 therapeutic epitopes from Section XI.C, and the expected number of junction epitopes for cassette sequences found by the three example methods was compared using MHCflurry. The distance metric and distance matrix were determined using equation (28). The allele frequencies, denoted as w_hin equation (28), were calculated using the model training samples across 22 HLA-A, 27 HLA-B, and 9 HLA-C alleles. The frequencies were calculated individually for each gene, HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C. Each distance metric was determined based on the expected number of presented junction epitopes that were below a threshold binding affinity weighted by corresponding allele frequencies at different threshold probabilities. Similarly to Section XI.B, for the first method, the optimal cassette was found via the traveling salesman problem (ATSP) formulation described above. For the second method, the optimal cassette was determined by taking the best cassette found after 1 million random samples. For the third method, the median number of junction epitopes was found in the 1 million random samples. Specifically, the distance matrix for the ATSP method is the weighted sum of single-allele distance sub-matrices, weighted by the allele frequency.

Expected # of

Expected # of
Random Sampling
Expected # of

Threshold
ATSP Binding
Binding Junction
Median Binding

(nM)
Junction Epitopes
Epitopes
Junction Epitopes

50
0.3
0.7
2.7

100
0.9
1.7
4.9

150
1.6
3.1
6.8

500
6.7
9.5
15.9

1000
12.9
17.4
26.1

The results of this example illustrate that any one of a number of criteria may be used to identify whether or not a given cassette design meets design requirements. Specifically, this example represents that another criteria, such as binding affinity, may be used to specify whether or not a given cassette design meets design requirements for shared antigen and neoantigen vaccine cassettes. For this criteria, a threshold binding affinity (e.g., 50-1000, or greater or lower) may be set specifying that the cassette design sequence should have fewer than some threshold number of junction epitopes above the threshold (e.g., 0), and any one of a number of methods may be used (e.g., methods one through three illustrated in the table) can be used to identify if a given candidate cassette sequence meets those requirements. These example methods further illustrate that depending on the method used, the thresholds may need to be set differently. Other criteria may be envisioned, such as those based stability, or combinations of criteria such as presentation score, affinity, and so on.

XII. Example Computer

FIG. 14 illustrates an example computer 1400 for implementing the entities shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. The computer 1400 includes at least one processor 1402 coupled to a chipset 1404. The chipset 1404 includes a memory controller hub 1420 and an input/output (I/O) controller hub 1422. A memory 1406 and a graphics adapter 1412 are coupled to the memory controller hub 1420, and a display 1418 is coupled to the graphics adapter 1412. A storage device 1408, an input device 1414, and network adapter 1416 are coupled to the I/O controller hub 1422. Other embodiments of the computer 1400 have different architectures.

The storage device 1408 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium such as a hard drive, compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), DVD, or a solid-state memory device. The memory 1406 holds instructions and data used by the processor 1402. The input interface 1414 is a touch-screen interface, a mouse, track ball, or other type of pointing device, a keyboard, or some combination thereof, and is used to input data into the computer 1400. In some embodiments, the computer 1400 may be configured to receive input (e.g., commands) from the input interface 1414 via gestures from the user. The graphics adapter 1412 displays images and other information on the display 1418. The network adapter 1416 couples the computer 1400 to one or more computer networks.

The computer 1400 is adapted to execute computer program modules for providing functionality described herein. As used herein, the term “module” refers to computer program logic used to provide the specified functionality. Thus, a module can be implemented in hardware, firmware, and/or software. In one embodiment, program modules are stored on the storage device 1408, loaded into the memory 1406, and executed by the processor 1402.

The types of computers 1400 used by the entities of FIG. 1 can vary depending upon the embodiment and the processing power required by the entity. For example, the presentation identification system 160 can run in a single computer 1400 or multiple computers 1400 communicating with each other through a network such as in a server farm. The computers 1400 can lack some of the components described above, such as graphics adapters 1412, and displays 1418.

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	Number	Date	Country
Parent	16766627	May 2020	US
Child	18504497		US

REDUCING JUNCTION EPITOPE PRESENTATION FOR NEOANTIGENS

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